We recently caught up with Tamara, Travel Training Team Lead at Essex County Council, to hear how her apprenticeship with ACL helped her grow into a confident and effective leader. Based in the London Borough of Ealing, Tamara supports young adults with special educational needs to travel safely and independently, and she’s using the skills gained through her apprenticeship to make a real impact.
Please tell us a little bit about your current role:
I am currently a Travel Training Team Lead for Essex County Council based in Ealing borough.
My role primarily consists of supporting my team in successfully delivering Travel Training to young adults and adults in Ealing borough with special educational needs, ensuring they can travel safe and independently on London transport services to and from their primary educational placements. Alongside this, responsibilities also include collaborating with the various transport services i.e. Transport for London & Elizabeth Line team to co -ordinate and implement engagement events for the community and schools within the borough on awareness of safer travel.
Over the last 2 years I have completed a level 3 leadership and management course with ACL.
Why did you decide to do an apprenticeship?
The apprenticeship was first introduced to me by my manager, who thought it would be a great way for me to advance current skills in my role as a team leader and work towards developing my career path also. I too was intrigued in the ways in which I could develop my skills around supporting and managing my team as well as learning about different ways I could develop the service. At the time, the service was quite new to Ealing borough so this was a great opportunity to learn how I could effectively progress its current standing with set tools, techniques and strategies.
Prior to starting the course, I had very limited knowledge around specific techniques, models and tools that could be utilised to support the development of my team and individuals within it. I was keen to learn of the different tools available to advance my own leadership and management skills around time management, team building and strategy; so was looking forward to the opportunity to gain this knowledge.
This was also a great opportunity to gain more confidence in my role as a team leader since the modules provided suggested that there would be an opportunity for me gain information that would inevitably support me to feel like more of an effective leader and manager, making me feel more secure in my role.
What are your career goals?
My current goals are to expand contract of travel training with Ealing council, manage a larger team, successfully achieve growth of service reputably and successfully achieve my targets.
Would you recommend an apprenticeship?
Absolutely, the course vastly improved my confidence and self-esteem alongside my skills and knowledge as a team leader and manager. It provided me with challenges that developed both my problem-solving skills and self-awareness. I feel it has helped me to progress not just professionally but personally also, giving me the strength, confidence, guidance and tools to move towards and conquer projects within both areas of my life.
Completing the course alongside completing functional skills (maths) and work-related duties was quite the challenge, and it took a lot of push and pull including implementing different tactics and strategies from time to time to work out how best to achieve the different tasks at hand as well as goals set.
This however allowed me to develop resilience, patience and strategic thinking skills that became very useful to me at the time and since then. During those periods, and with the information learnt during the course, I was also able to really advance skills sets related to organisation, time management and self-awareness, helping me to understand how and what things worked best for me such as how and when to study and how to best organise my time so that I had effective study sessions. I learnt how to prioritise different tasks that were of high priority and how to manage myself to be successful in completing them.
Studying functional skills was a real challenge for me and from the beginning I was grateful for the opportunity to re complete learning in this area and ultimately fill what I felt was a chip on my shoulder. Though the journey to filling this chip wasn’t easy and was indeed filled with apprehension and doubt for a long time, it became something I felt incredibly proud of and excited to achieve. Swapping tutors was a nerve-wracking time as I felt quite behind in my progress at this point and was doubtful as to whether I was going to be able to in fact achieve this goal, but this was a great change that immensely helped me to propel towards my goal of passing my maths.
I really feel like each aspect if the course was delivered to me at the perfect time, helping me to learn, shape and hone skills in areas that were very relevant to things currently taking place either at work or personally. For e.g. the 1st module on project management started as I was just piloting my 1st project within my role, providing me with additional support and structure towards the project being successful. One of the tools that I learnt about and have continued to utilise since then is a Gantt Chart. This has been such a beneficial tool for me for personal and professional means.
What is one thing you are proud of?
Overall I am immensely proud of passing my maths as this has had such a knock on effect in me then feeling confident in myself and somewhat unstoppable in my pursuits
What do you like doing outside of work?
Outside of work, I enjoy artwork (drawing & painting), working out at the gym, swimming and kickboxing.
Congratulations Tamara! If Tamara’s story has inspired you to take the next step in your career, why not explore how an apprenticeship with ACL could help you build confidence, develop new skills, and unlock your potential?
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