“The apprenticeship has had a positive impact on me professionally. It’s allowed me to develop and grow as a person, and upskill and increase knowledge as a manager and leader.”
Currently I am Chief of Staff for Shaw Trust, supporting the CEO and CEO office. The role is extremely varied and includes supporting the executive team as they aim to fulfil our objectives as set out in the Shaw Trust strategy in the Vision 2030 Strategic Directive. There is a lot of coordination with the executive team and the wider organisation.
I’ve been with Shaw Trust for nearly eight years now. I started off as a Team Leader on the Work Programme. Through professional development and training opportunities I managed to progress and become a Business Manager covering many of our centres in London. From there I moved on to the Work and Health Programme covering Essex and Kent as Area Manager. In that time I also became one of the Employee Voice representatives for Shaw Trust. This allowed me to see the bigger picture of the organisation and join meetings that gave great insight.
I started thinking about what I could do next and came across the Chief of Staff role. I thought I may be a bit green for the role, but believed I had some transferable skills and my apprenticeship supported that. The modules I was working through helped me to recognise I had transferable skills and knowledge. I was invited to an external first round interview and a second interview with Chris Luck, Group CEO, and was successful. I haven’t looked back since then and I’m really enjoying the role.
We were told about the opportunity to undertake the Operations/Departmental Manager Level 5 Apprenticeship by senior managers at the time who thought it would be a good idea to get a formal qualification in leadership. I had a lot of experience but didn’t have any formal document to certify it. So I thought it would be good opportunity to fill any gaps in my knowledge. For example, the finance module which covered profit and loss has helped me ever since when working with companywide finance.
The apprenticeship has had a positive impact on me professionally. It’s hard work and you have to set aside a lot of time to give it your full focus. But it builds on the areas of business we work in, aligns nicely with my role and I’ve been supported by my tutor to build a portfolio of evidence required for assessors.
It’s allowed me to develop and grow as a person, and upskill and increase knowledge as a manager and leader. I now have a better understanding of self and increased self-awareness. This is something I’ve been able to feed down into my team as well. Some of the apprenticeship assessments around personalities and characteristics I’ve used within teams.
My tutor was Iain Branch and he was really good. He was able to support me and provide ideas on where to get evidence for assignments. He was very understanding when I moved into the Chief of Staff role. He was flexible to meet early or out of hours for the sessions we needed.
I would definitely recommend the apprenticeship to others. It really does support all roles within organisation, but in particular if you are managing a team or being a leader. It’s really beneficial!
It is a lot of hard work, you have to dig deep and set aside time. Sometimes finding the time to do the work is challenging. There is a commitment that needs to be made from the learner to stay motivated to complete the journey. But if you make that commitment and put the work in it can be extremely rewarding.
Satisfaction, development, time-management, achievement, fun.
Eccentric, supportive, honest, realistic, challenging (meaning he challenged me to do my best!).
I’m going to say a hippopotamus because they’re unpredictable! They look fun and cuddly on the outside, but they can be quite deadly and have a serious side. Similarly, the apprenticeship can be fun but there is also a serious element in terms of the work and growth.
ABC by the Jackson 5, because there’s a real methodology to completing the apprenticeship. It’s not quite as easy as ABC though!
Disclaimer: This video is from an external source and doesn’t have subtitles.
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