Not everyonearrives bythe same route.
Exit signs point out. This one points in.
We're Freedom Fire, a fire safety business in Bury. Hiring by CV kept missing people who could do the work.
The way in has never been one route. The first were university students at the back of a rundown warehouse. Then came supported placements from New Bridge College in 2021, then Jobcentre referrals and direct, inclusive recruitment, since October 2025 the T Level industry placements with Bury College, and now work experience, placements and T Levels with The Manchester College. Every route ends in the same place: a real role in the warehouse, on the web team, in ecommerce or in IT, a named person to learn from, and a long-term job where the work justifies it. We assess attitude, reliability, interests and potential, not a polished CV.
The route in →Every route in. Six stages.
The same six stages whether someone arrives through a T Level, work experience, a supported college placement, the Jobcentre or the Jobs Guarantee, with a named person at each.
Five ways in
- T Level placement with Bury College
- Work experience, the T Level programme or an apprenticeship with The Manchester College
- Supported placement with New Bridge College
- Jobcentre Plus referral
- The Government's Jobs Guarantee, with the Growth Company
Supported start
A named person to learn from. Adjustments written in.
Workplace skills
Warehouse, web and ecommerce, IT.
Responsibility
Something the person owns.
Paid work or next step
A long-term role, or a clear next destination.
Mentoring
Showing the next person the route.
- Since
- Supported college placements with New Bridge College since 2021; Jobcentre Plus referrals; T Level industry placements with Bury College since October 2025; work experience, the T Level programme and the apprenticeship scheme with The Manchester College.
- Volume
- Three T Level students in the first cohort, three more from October 2026, alongside college placements, Jobcentre referrals and two Jobs Guarantee roles, both already filled.
- Outcome
- All three T Level students progressed into paid work: summer internships, then continuing roles (Bury College's story↗). Earlier college and Jobcentre starters are in long-term jobs.
- Since
- Every placement, from the first day.
- Volume
- One named mentor per student; adjustments offered before the start.
- Outcome
- Something each person owns by the end, and a paid role wherever one exists.
- How
- On the job alongside experienced staff, with a live brief the person owns from the first week and responsibility that grows with confidence.
- Adjustments
- Offered before the interview and written into the start: hours around a course, equipment, travel, one-to-one support where it is needed.
- Time
- Around 28 hours a week of the founder's time, and a named mentor for every placement.
Seven years, told through the people.
The company's story from the Freedom Group timeline, kept to the parts about the people who built it: who joined, where they worked, and what they were trusted with.
March 2019One person, one listing. Tom Letcher sells one refurbished extinguisher from Bury through a Facebook Marketplace listing. No team, no plan, no company.
June 2020The first students. Trading as Freedom Fire from a corner of the family warehouse. University and college students join to clean, refill and prepare hundreds of refurbished units a day, with pallets going out nationwide.
Aug 2021The company. Freedom Fire & Safety Ltd incorporated. Engineers now service and install extinguishers on commercial sites alongside the online range.
2021The first placements. Learners from Newbridge College, including young people with additional needs, take placements in the business. One of the earliest, Jojo, goes on to full-time work.
April 2022A front door of its own. Unit 10: the first premises the company could call its own, and a base for the team.
2023The year of building. Thousands of products researched, photographed and written up by hand before the store opened. The founder's own savings fund the stock.
May 2024eBay Social Impact Award. The eBay business store opens. Freedom Fire is named runner-up in the eBay UK Business Awards for the category of social impact, and the trip to Belfast tells the story of the young people given a way in.
Nov 2024Unit 19. An empty industrial shell turned into the headquarters over six months, with offices, a kitchen, fulfilment rooms and packing stations, fitted out by the team while orders kept shipping.
Dec 2024The team unloading one of their containers at Christmas. Christmas Eve 2024: the first container of Firestorm fire extinguishers, the company's own brand. What a way to celebrate: a Christmas present for the whole team.
Oct 2025T Level placements begin. The first T Level industry placements start with Bury College. Bill, Harrison and Gabriel join, each with a named person to learn from.- Dec 2025Bill wins the Freedom Group project. At the weekly meeting Bill presents the Freedom Group project and wins it: the company's new website and storefronts, built from scratch by two T Level students.
- June 2026Three of three. All three of the first cohort complete their placements and move into paid summer internships, then continuing roles. The whole team marks it with a day at the races.
Aug 2026A million-pound year. Combined sales pass £1 million. Containers arrive back to back, the company is number one for extinguishers on eBay and Temu, and launches on Amazon and Shopify are in preparation.
Sept 2026The King's Awards for Enterprise. The company enters the King's Awards for Enterprise under the Promoting Opportunity category, with The Way In as the company's initiative.
Oct 2026The second cohort, and the Jobs Guarantee. Three more Bury College T Level students will arrive, and two young people have already got their places through the Government's Jobs Guarantee, part of the Youth Guarantee, with the Growth Company. The newest ways in.
22 Oct 2026Bury College tells the story. The college publishes the first cohort's story: Bill and Gabriel's website and storefronts, Harrison's warehouse, and all three in permanent paid roles. Read it↗
The team.
Who they are, and how they came in.
First name, role and route in. A full profile appears only with the person's approval.
Read more
Four groups. What changed.
What changed for the students, the business, the staff and the town.
The people supported
Nine people supported in 2026, seven of them from disadvantaged backgrounds. Seven in paid work. All three Bury College T Level students progressed into paid roles, as Bury College reported↗.
The organisation
Roles filled across warehouse, IT, web and ecommerce. The website, quoted at about £40,000 by an agency, was built over six months by two T Level students who arrived on placements.
The employees
Experienced staff mentor every starter. At the weekly meeting a different colleague presents their work and takes feedback from the team. Placement students now mentor the next intake.
The wider community
Two talks and a workshop at New Bridge College, recruitment fairs, and a voice in how the Jobs Guarantee is run. Families see confidence return: one mother wrote that she had got her son back.
Bury College told the story.
The college's own news story on its first T Level cohort at Freedom Fire. Bill and Gabriel came from Digital Software Development and built the new website and storefronts. Harrison came from Management and Administration, learned the warehouse from the inside and took on supporting his colleagues. All three hold permanent paid roles, and three more students are to come this academic year.
“The people who are quiet, the people who are sat at the back of the room, the ones who are nervous and might be struggling to come out of their shell are the guys that, I've found, end up doing very well.”Tom Letcher, speaking to Bury College
“Everything seemed to have changed when he got an opportunity in your company. I can finally say ‘I got my son back’
thanks to you Tom.”
The network behind the route.
Names only, until each has confirmed what appears here.
Employer ambassadorT Level Ambassadors
Freedom Fire is an employer ambassador: it hosts T Level industry placements and speaks for them to other employers.
Committed, Level 1 · Level 2, Employer, in progressDisability Confident
Committed, Level 1, with Level 2 Employer accreditation in progress. Adjustments are offered before a placement starts, not after a problem.
Placement provider since 2021New Bridge College
Supported placements since 2021 for young people with additional needs. One of the earliest, Jojo, has been full-time since 2022. Tom has been back twice to speak, and once more with a professional boxer for a workshop on resilience and ambition.
T Level industry placements · since October 2025Bury College
T Level industry placements since October 2025. All three students in the first cohort progressed into paid roles, and three more start from October 2026.
Work experience · T Level programme · apprenticeshipsThe Manchester College
The newest college route in, alongside New Bridge College and Bury College: work experience, the T Level programme and the apprenticeship scheme.
Government employment serviceJobcentre Plus
The Government's employment service and one of the routes in: referrals of people looking for work, who start with the same induction and a named person.
A Government initiative · with the Growth Company · 2026The Jobs Guarantee
A Government initiative delivered locally by the Growth Company: two funded six-month jobs of up to 25 hours a week, for 18 to 21 year olds who have been looking for work for 18 months or more. Both places are already filled.
Feedback, then a change.
What people told us, and what changed because of it. Feedback comes from daily one-to-ones, reviews, the weekly meeting, the participant films, Bury College's T Level workbooks, and from tutors and families.
- Said
- Real responsibility makes them feel trusted, and regular guidance makes unfamiliar work less intimidating. Some found unclear tasks overwhelming, or were nervous speaking in front of others.
- Changed
- Clearer written job lists, projects split into achievable stages, tasks matched to strengths, and responsibility increased gradually.
- Followed
- At the weekly meeting a different colleague now presents their work and takes feedback from the room, so confidence is built by everyone rather than handed down by the founder.
- Said
- Confidence, communication and routine were bigger barriers than technical ability. Some needed flexibility around education, travel or home life.
- Changed
- Hours adjusted around courses, equipment provided, one-to-one support increased where needed, and adjustments offered before anyone starts.
- Followed
- People a standard interview would have missed are in long-term roles. Jojo has five years without a sick day.
- Said
- Josh's mum wrote unprompted that “all hope was lost” after the family's losses, and then: “I can finally say ‘I got my son back’.” Tutors and families give the independent view of change.
- Changed
- No satisfaction ratings are claimed until they are measured. Anonymous feedback at the start, midpoint and end of every placement is being formalised, alongside a central participant register.
- Followed
- The first full year of measured feedback is reported here when it is complete.
The door stays open.
The programme runs again from October 2026. What that brings.
The shutter goes up again. Three more T Level students from Bury College, a named supervisor for each, an induction and a brief that is theirs from the first week.
A central register of dates, attendance, support, skills, reviews and outcomes, kept in the Freedom Brain, the company's own operations hub, so the care behind a placement can be seen, not just said. The same hub gives the people on the programme an online portal, with a written training guide for every job in the company.
Anonymous feedback at each point of a placement, so confidence, skills and satisfaction are measured, not assumed.
Two more have already got their places with the Growth Company, on a guarantee that a young person deserves a chance, and a paid role wherever one exists.
What we change before anyone starts becomes the standard, not the exception.
Everyone deserves a way in.
“At Freedom Fire we care more about the person than their CV. Our aim is to get as many young people as we can back into the system. That is how we mean to change the world, one fire extinguisher at a time.”
