Meet Niamh, an MDM Lead (Consumer EMEA) for Sonoco Plc who developed her leadership skills on an Operations / Departmental Manager Level 5 Apprenticeship whilst also successfully completing her CMI Level 5 Diploma in Management and Leadership with us. Read on to find out how Niamh discovered the confidence to lead and manage teams.
What skills were you looking to develop before starting your Level 5 Operations / Departmental Manager Apprenticeship?
I wanted to become a better manager and know how to deal with circumstances and situations as they come up. I was made a manager of a team without any prior experience and was struggling with just day-to-day relationships and trying to build a good team.
How have you applied what you’ve learnt on your Level 5 Operations / Departmental Manager apprenticeship at Sonoco?
I’ve been able to put in frameworks and foundations within the team to build a strong culture. I’ve put in team meetings, team building activities and processes. I think the main thing though is just confidence, being able to challenge people, put my own view forward and manage the team in the direction I want it to go and through leadership make sure the team follow that.
What advice would you give to apprentices?
Consider everything you learn as an opportunity to try it at work. Some things I tried didn’t work but not being afraid of change and putting those tools and techniques in place has helped me put that learning into practice and not just see it as something you’ve learnt.
Tell us about your experience at Whyy? Change?
I’ve absolutely loved being at Whyy Change. I didn’t really know what I was looking for in a course and this is my first learning experience outside of University.
From the learning being engaging with the tutors presenting the course to learning from other like-minded professionals has allowed me to see different perspectives of how to tackle a situation or how I can use tools and techniques to give me steps and a process to move forward.
Everyone at Whyy has been super helpful in supporting me on something I didn’t understand to personally just asking me how things are.
Any other feedback you’d like to share?
No, I think it’s rare to find a business like this offering what Whyy? offers, so all I can say is keep doing what you’re doing!
