From teaching in schools to teaching on the railway.
In 2009 I graduated from Edge Hill University in Lancashire with a degree in Primary Education and embarked immediately on a successful career in teaching, working in a primary school in my hometown of Wigan, Lancashire.
After teaching for nine years I began to realise that I was ready for a new challenge in life, not just with my career but also my personal lifestyle and where I was living. I was ready to shake up the norm. I did lots of research and planning and walked into my school one day and handed my resignation into the head teacher. Scary! I would be leaving at the end of term. In the meantime I sold my house and began to make plans to move to the sunny Somerset in the South West of England.
After the big move I found employment on the railway and carried out a number of retail and operational roles before I found comfort as a Customer Service Trainer within the L&D department. Perfect! I can use my skills as a teacher and lifelong passion for the railways to train colleagues without the stress and hectic lifestyle of a classroom teacher.
I train colleagues to deliver excellent customer service.
My current role within GWR is as a Customer Service Trainer. In this role I deliver training for both new and existing colleagues to deliver excellent customer service to our passengers regardless of their grade and role and adhere to the high principles and values of the business. I deliver induction training to new colleagues starting out in their career on the railway which encompasses important courses such a Disability and Equality Awareness, to safety on the railway and how to deal with and respond to disruption scenarios as part of their roles for frontline colleagues. I also deliver training in Conflict Awareness and teach colleagues what is expected of them and how to respond when conflict situations may occur as part of their day job.
Additionally, I am a retail trainer. This means that I deliver ticket and general retail training to new and existing colleagues who have revenue checking and issuing duties as part of their front line role.
As a trainer I am also expected to manage and maintain the courses that I am responsible for. I am a knowledgeable retail trainer and my ticket knowledge stems back to my passion for the railways in general but also from my time as a Conductor and Train Manager onboard services with duties to check and inspect customers' tickets.
Finally, as a trainer I also work with other outside agencies to provide training, particularly charities and organisations who actively help and encourage people to find employment on the railway. Examples of this include designing and delivering training for the Prince's Trust and Women in Rail.
Networking and diversity across the business.
As a trainer I really enjoy the diversity that this role brings. Day to day training is my bread and butter and I could be delivering this in our main L&D training centre in Swindon as well as across the different major locations on our network including London Paddington, Reading, Bristol Temple Meads, Newton Abbot, Gloucester and Newport.
Taking part in projects is another of my passions. It is great to work so closely with other stakeholders within the business and liaising with talented and skilled individuals to enable high quality training to be developed and delivered across a wide range of subject areas. Effective networking allows this to flourish and I enjoy the prospect of meeting different people and broadening my understanding of just how the railway works and how everyone can play their individual part to help our services run smoothly.
Be willing to try something new. It's the best way to grow!
Experiencing new things will broaden your horizon and give you things to talk about. This is really useful for life experiences and for discussions at interviews when the time is right to move on. Seek out new opportunities to meet new people and take part in exciting and innovative new projects. Want to try something different from your day job and see if you like it first? Why not do some shadowing or grab the opportunity to go on secondment within the business you're working in? With a secondment this is ideal as it means your original position will be waiting for you if, and when, you decide to return. You never know, a secondment may lead to new doors opening that you never thought about previously!
