As Head of Sector Support, Kate’s work focuses on supporting our customers across UK and Ireland, managing strategy, budget and the people that implement much of the delivery.
How would you describe your role as head of sector support?
My role is Head of Sector Support is to lead on retention and customer experience for the UK and Ireland market in Trinity and that includes a whole range of things from gathering, analysing and acting on feedback, a whole range of teacher support activities like creating blogs delivering webinars writing resources etc and then a proactive retention work for example contacting centres who haven't done anything for a while or perhaps their numbers have dropped and also having a particular group of key customers or key accounts who we are really proactively in touch with at a number of times through the year. As head of the team, I set the strategy, oversee all that work and manage a team who does much of the delivery, set the metrics that we want to measure ourselves against all and evaluate how well things are going. I am also heavily involved in the budgeting and forecasting side of things for the UK and Ireland market as well as being involved in big cross organisational projects as a key market stakeholder, like the implementation of my Trinity, refunds and amendments, global payments. My involvement is to feed in what our market needs whilst being mindful of wider business needs.
Your work involves closely working with our centres. Why is nurturing good relationships so integral to Trinity?
One of the key reasons that we nurture these relationships is to keep customer satisfaction levels high and that means they're more likely to keep coming back and entering candidates with us. We also want to engender a sense of brand loyalty amongst our customers, that is something that's very strong with Trinity, lots of our customers really identify with our values and our ethos and the way we design our qualifications and so by giving them a good experience and nurturing relationships with them they have again a sense of brand loyalty which means that sometimes when things do go wrong as they do sometime then they are less likely to leave us. It also means we know our customers deeply which means that we can inform developments whether that’s is product development or systems and process developments. Through understanding our customers deeply, we are able to represent their needs to the business.
Interestingly you studied science at university yet have worked in the arts for most of your life. Was this always part of your career plan?
I will be honest, no, this wasn't my career plan at all when I went to study physics and maths at university. I had an idea that I would be a commercial pilot but then in the last year of my course September the 11th happened in the US. Over time I also realised that perhaps I didn't want to be a glorified bus driver, also my partner works in sustainability, and I think it would have been really tricky having one of us flying around the world while he was trying to reduce our carbon footprint. I got interested in the idea of education and making science education engaging and interesting and just so happened to be looking for a job at a time when there was a government funded programme called Creative Partnerships happening in England that was all about making the curriculum creative and engaging through the arts. That role lead into a career working in education with teachers but also had me develop a passion for the arts in schools and how the arts and creativity can unlock so much of education. I have worked at a number of different organisations but previous to Trinity I worked for the Arts Council of England on a programme called Artsmark which is a kite mark for schools, I was also involved in managing the funding that Trinity received from Arts Council England for Arts Award and eventually wanted to jump over to a different kind of organisation so Trinity was a real natural next step and I'm still here you know nearly getting on for 13 years later.
You co-chair the balancing act Parents and Carers Peer Network group at Trinity. Can you tell us more about this?
As many will know we have created a number of peer networks in Trinity to support staff to gather around shared interests. The People and Culture team announced the idea of the Parents and Carers network last year and reached out to people. At the inaugural sessions, they said they were looking for someone to chair and as it's an area that I'm interested in supporting with another colleague who I really enjoy working with, we thought we would give it a go together! The network supportive community that provides a safe space to share experiences, seek ideas, and discuss the everyday realities of juggling work and caring roles. It's a really supportive network of people who are all doing the same kind of thing but having very different experiences and coming at it in different ways and sharing that with each other and providing support and advice to each other. Sarah and I just facilitate a space for that and perhaps structure some themes for us to talk about. If you are a parent or a carer and would like to join the network please do get in touch!
Trinity is committed to supporting our people with healthy work life balance and flexible working. Has this benefited you personally?
Yes, absolutely it has benefited me how Trinity has been working in the last few years. Obviously, the changes that have happened since COVID came in have come with their own challenges when working from home most of the time but in lots of ways they have made work-life balance better because you don't have to travel in all the time and you can pop out to do a school pickup or for a walk or to the supermarket. Those things I have really benefited from. I've also worked flexibly at Trinity since I came back from my maternity leave in 2016. Initially I worked four-day week, then a nine-day fortnight and then I went to having every Monday afternoon off and now I work condensed hours so I'm full time but still with the Monday afternoon off so I can pick up my son and take him to his after-school class on the Monday. I really love being able to do that. My managers have always trusted that they know that I'm doing my job and been outcome focussed and have given me lots of flexibility and in turn that has increased my commitment and willingness to go the extra mile for the business.
You have been at Trinity for an incredible 13 years and counting. What has made you stay all this time?
It was never something that I expected when I started, I can't believe how quickly that time has gone to be honest, as I get older and in the post COVID world time seems to go by so quickly. The reason I am still here at Trinity is that there's always something different to do and always something different to learn. When I first started working here it was just on Arts Award, then my role expanded to being all subject areas which was a huge challenge and learning curve. There have been new projects and challenges, the move to digital for example, and I have had a chance to work with a range of different Directors within different departments which has always brought opportunities to learn from them. Recently I have really relished getting involved in the implementation of My Trinity and working with the product team has been really interesting.
It's always that new challenge that has kept me here, also to work at Trinity in a time when we really are taking forward some of the things that we have wanted to do for so many years in terms of improving things for our customers is really satisfying. I look forward seeing that work completed hopefully to see the benefit it brings in terms of satisfaction and retention of our customers here in the UK and Ireland, maybe you'll see me here for another 13 years who knows!
“The reason I am still here at Trinity is that there's always something different to do and always something different to learn.”