I graduated from the University of Birmingham with a BA Honours (2:1) in Music and Drama. I am extremely ambitious and I wanted to find a job that matched my upbeat and on the go, bubbly personality. I had been really struggling to find any job that I thought I would actually enjoy and was applying for endless jobs I had no sincere interest in. I then stumbled across Explore Learning on graduate-jobs.com and was really intrigued – I have always wanted to run my own business and I had seriously considered teaching but decided against it.
The idea of being part of a centre’s success within a small team and making a real difference to families and children’s education in the local community got me really excited. It was genuinely the only job I found that interested me; I couldn’t have been luckier to have landed a graduate job straight from university that I absolutely love and that makes me feel so fulfilled. I was particularly impressed by the development offered within the company, the fact that they’re rated in the top 100 companies to work for and by their drive to train all staff to the highest standards.
Before I began working at Explore Learning I had managed children’s holiday camps, mentored children in the West Midlands and taught young children piano. I loved working with children in education but I just wanted something more business driven than teaching. I initially began as an Assistant Director in the Harborne branch and was instantly thrown into several training and development opportunities. I met so many lovely and supportive people and still continue to at all my trainings and social events. I never felt intimidated and my Centre Directors have been patient and spent time guiding me through the processes of the centre. After eight months an opportunity came up to transfer to a different centre closer to home, and although I was really sad to leave the children and parents in Harborne I knew it would be a fantastic opportunity to be part of another centre.
Moving to Wylde Green presented new challenges and aided my development further helping me grow in confidence. Four months later I became the Centre Director of Wylde Green which was hugely exciting. I am still continuing to develop and learn new things in my role to ensure I am providing the best service for the children and parents. I would one day love to launch my own centre!
What I love the most is that there is no such thing as a typical day. I will never do the same thing days in a row and that is what makes it so exciting. Due to the nature of the membership you never know what lovely families and faces you will see in the centre that day! Making children smile, grow in confidence and for parents to feedback the difference Explore has made to them makes my job incredibly rewarding. Being able to have such a close relationship with every family and work as a team to help their child achieve their potential is so fulfilling. I am incredibly proud to be part of a network of people who really can change a child’s attitude and success at school.
Throughout my time at Explore I have had the best training and development support from my peers and managers I could have imagined whilst being challenged in so many ways. I have learnt an abundance of new skills ranging from sales and marketing to finance and educational content. Multi-tasking and delegating within my team has been the biggest learning curve for me!
If you are looking for more than a graduate job, a fulfilling opportunity which you can put your heart and soul into then this job is for you. When you start at Explore the key is just to get stuck in, don’t worry about doing things wrong, we’ve all been there and know how many things there are to learn, using your initiative and learning as you go is the best way to become a fantastic Assistant Director!
