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Nicola Faulkner - ENABLE
Tell us a little about you and why you chose Strathclyde
My name is Nicola and I’m 36. I am an Administration Manager in the third sector and have worked for ENABLE for just over 3 years. I had been building my Management career until I went through a personal trauma in my late 20s. I gave up on a Management career in order to take time to look after me and my wellbeing and at one point I never thought I’d do it again and then in 2021 I decided I was ready for it again but midway through a pandemic I knew this time I wanted to do it in an industry that really helped other people! Never did I think they would also help me by providing me with the opportunity to study a Management degree alongside my job so when the GA programme was suggested to me by my Manager who was very supportive of my development I took a chance. I never expected to pass the interview and here I am heading in to 3rd year later this year!
What new skills are you learning throughout the course
I have many years of training/mentoring/supervising and managing people and I’ve learned from my Managers but I’ve never been trained myself on how to be a Manager or learned how to be a Manager academically so I only know what I think is the right way. Through the GA course, I have been able to improve my presentation and literary skills which has allowed me to present my skills in a better way within my workplace. I have learned to be more open to different ways of thinking and doing things and have developed skills in effective problem solving/analysis/decision making to name but a few. The finance module in year 1 allowed me to learn about my organisation from a financial point of view and the CSR module in year 2 gave me the opportunity to learn about a completely different branch of my organisation and gave me the courage to put my ideas forward and get involved in other areas of the company. My peers on the course bring all sorts of experience which I have also learned so much from.
….and how can you see these helping you in your future career
The course is already helping me in my career. ENABLE provides so much support to their GA students and many colleagues and leaders from around the business have offered and provided their help and guidance and people are always excited to hear about how I am getting on which makes me feel so valued. I have been given a few different opportunities just over the last year to take time away from my position to be involved in different projects in order to build my experience within the organisation and this is allowing me to grow my network at ENABLE and the social care community.
The benefits you see from studying a GA
- Gaining skills and tools to make me better in my current role.
- Developing new skills and knowledge to allow me to build my career and be of more help to all of the people we support at ENABLE.
- Making new friends that I can already see being friends for life.
- The academic reading has actually encouraged me to start reading for pleasure again which I haven’t did since my younger years.
- Being able to train my brain in my late 30s has provided so much fulfilment and has played a huge part in bettering my mental and emotional health and wellbeing.
I feel like I can achieve anything these days.
Nicola Faulkner is in 2nd year of her BA (Hons) Business Management Graduate Apprenticeship
