Harriet joined the team in September 2019, and coordinates Target Apprenticeships – an ESF project Form the Future is a part of. Target Apprenticeships looks to make apprenticeships accessible for all, and support employers to understand the value of apprentices – something Harriet champions through her work. Read on to find out more about Harriet’s role and her career path!
Could you explain your current job role?
My current job role is extremely diverse. While my main priority is project coordinating a consortium of partners, I also have the responsibility of managing the marketing of Target Apprenticeships and creating content for its social media platform.
I’m often tasked with attending a number of social networking events to generate new business leads and represent Target Apprenticeships. A secondary task for me is to contribute towards the delivery of the many events that Form the Future run!
What does a typical day look like for you?
A good example would be tweeting on the go, delivering a presentation to a business, catching up on emails, taking phone calls from new leads and using Microsoft planner to keep track of my to-do list. I often have internal meetings, update my project tracker and liaise with my partners over emailing.
Could you tell me about your career path so far – how did you get to where you are?
I’ve always had office-based jobs – my first full time job involved car insurance sales and hitting KPIs but also a little office administration. I learnt a lot about office etiquette!
I then moved into an admin-based role within the water industry, which required a lot of professional email liaison, a strong ability to work well under pressure, and most importantly this allowed me to develop my skill of being highly organised.
Working in the water industry meant there was always an opportunity to learn more and progress. An internal promotion meant my roll became more dynamic – I learnt to read CAD drawings and technically coordinate over 86 schemes at one time.
As the company was large, I had the opportunity to put my writing ability to good use by working with the communications team, writing up newsletters to customers, creating press releases and news articles. This gave me the confidence to project coordinate large schemes, and so I decided to take the next step in my career and find a role that provided me with even more responsibility and experience in a different industry.
What motivated you to want to work for Form the Future, and what do you enjoy about working here?
I wanted to work for an organisation that contributed towards making a positive impact, and so when searching for a new challenge I looked into the role and carried out research on the company. Form the Future stood out to me as an organisation that really works towards making a difference for their local community. I knew that the role would bring challenges, but with that meant opportunity and job satisfaction.
What are some of the challenging aspects of your job role?
My role requires someone who is extremely positive and enthusiastic about their work, and sometimes that can be hard to maintain on days where you don’t feel so great, but that’s where I’m grateful I have a team that is incredibly supportive and allows me to have some quiet space when I need to focus on important tasks.
When you were younger, what did you want to be? How has this changed as you’ve progressed in your career?
When I was younger for years I hoped I’d become a columnist for a fashion magazine. I read an awful lot and watched films and TV series that had leading female roles, such as The Devil Wears Prada and Sex And The City. Ultimately I identified that I had lots of other skills that could be used for a better cause. Of course, in my head I could still be Anne Hathaway, running around NYC providing Meryl Streep with coffee.
However, films and books like to fluff the reality of a career and as I grew up so many new jobs became available. I have always and will always enjoy fashion and writing, but I’ve been able to pursue a career that has elements of other things that I’m capable of and enjoy!
Where would you like your career to be in 5 years’ time?
I would like to become a manager of a small team, have much bigger responsibilities in decision making for a company and have a more balanced blend of an office and customer / consumer facing role.
