What are you doing now?
I work for Skipton Building Society as a Training and Development Supervisor. I’m responsible for ensuring Financial Advisers remain competent to give customers advice and continue to do their role.
My role varies from running training and development sessions to sitting in on meetings with customers… and anything else I get roped into along the way!
I never went to university and started working for Skipton Building Society doing admin to get my foot in the door. I decided I wanted more of a career here so decided to do some financial planning exams through work, which opened so many doors for me.
The beauty of it was the Building Society paid for it all, so I haven’t had any student debt.
What advice would you give your 17-year-old self?
Drop the attitude and embrace learning! I got to a point where I was sick of school and knew I never wanted to go to university, but that shouldn’t have stopped me trying.
The other piece of advice I would give is just enjoy school as much as you can. Before you know it you’ll either be at university or working! My friends and I always talk about how fun it would be to go back to school for a week with no responsibilities and no bills to pay.
What are you most proud of?
I didn’t have the best time at school (I ended up getting suspended twice) but I’m really proud of how much I’ve progressed since then, how hard I’ve worked to be where I am and the person I’ve become.
I wouldn’t have been able to do that without the teachers at South Craven and I didn’t realise that when I was at school (and without getting a few stern words from Mr Hill!).
