Experience

English Language Summer School - 2021

This summer saw me reconnecting with my inner child! I decided that it was time for a small change from the day-to-day norm. Change is good, isn’t it? Here’s what was up to in the summer: Having been involved in successful summer schools in the past, this year I organised and facilitated 3 weeks of English Language Summer Camp for local kids aged 7 & 8. They say never work with animals, family or kids ...... I'm not ashamed to admit, it was a challenge, but nothing good is ever easy! What a great bunch of kids, they certainly kept me on my toes. I can't wait to roll it out again next year to more age groups. Check out the short video on this link: https://youtu.be/S9TIx4aOt0E

08/03/2021 – International Women’s Day

It was a pleasure to speak at a forum on Barriers to Women’s Career Progression in The Workplace on International Women's Day. The turnout was fantastic and it was a really enjoyable experience. I was also delighted and heartened to see a high number of engaged and positive men in attendance. The forum was organised by Bulleh Shah Packaging, Pakistan, as part of their ACTS Initiative Forum (Actively Caring Through Sharing). The amazing ACTS initiative guides women within the workforce and empowers them to identify areas where they could be assisted to contribute to a better and more inclusive work environment for everyone. The ACTS forum not only gives women a voice at corporate level, it also ensures that they are aware of and up to date with company policies. We even got a small write up in Il Centro, my local Italian newspaper!

Front Page News - The Qatar Petroleum Summer Program 2019

The Qatar Petroleum Summer Program 2019 focused on awareness of the Oil & Gas industry, understanding renewable energy & appreciating sustainability issues & solutions. This was one of the most interesting, enjoyable & rewarding projects that I have been involved in over the years. A great group of participants and colleagues. P.S that's me front row on the right.

PetroChallenge with OilSim Events

Working with NeXT Schlumberger as a course facilitator means that I get to be involved in some fantastic events. The PetroChallenge events in Norway are among my favourite assignments. PetroChallenge is an educational event for universities & high schools which aims to developing participants’ knowledge of the oil and gas industry. Events utilise OilSim the upstream learning simulator. During events, teams collaborate and compete to discover and develop hydrocarbons. The buzz is palpable and because of the high numbers of participants (at times, up to 500 at one event), working together with other facilitators is necessary and it creates a highly energised environment.

Various photos of students at PetroChallenge events.

A Blast From the Past - Corus Steel

Although quite a few years ago (ca. 2004), this project for Corus Teesside Cast Products has a special place in my heart as it was one of my "babies" in the early days. I managed, designed and delivered this programme for Corus Steel based around their 8 Health & Safety principles. This project ran for several years and over 2,000 team members and 400 team leaders successfully passed the course which was TROCN accredited (Teesside Regional Open College Network). The ROI was massive and was evidenced via the immense improvement in communication and the management of contractors across site, as well as an increase in workforce competence which had a massively positive impact on accident rates and time spent on conflict resolution. This project only concluded when the entire work force had been trained.

Do What You Love & Love What You Do

Life should be about doing what we love. When we love what we do, it isn’t work. I take the skills that I use daily as a training consultant and apply them to enjoyable activities in my personal life. One of my favourite opportunities to do this is when I work with a luxury destination wedding planner as a celebrant for location weddings in Italy. I use my love of making connections, showing empathy and creating meaningful relationships to develop rapport with soon-to-be-married couples. I use my listening skills, questioning skills and empathy to gather information during relaxed chats with engaged couples. I use my communication skills to coach couples to identify and communicate their needs to me so I can create the ceremony of their dreams. I take my love of language and passion for designing training programmes and presentations and I create bespoke symbolic wedding ceremonies for happy couples.

Flashback to 2004 - Sirte Oil - ILM Introductory Certificate in Team Leading

This was early 2004. I was working for TTE Technical Training in Teesside, in their Management & Professional Development Department. This was in the TTE Training Centre on the (old ICI) Wilton International Site in Redcar, Northeast England. I had just presented this group of 5 Libyan learners from Sirte Oil with their certificates for achieving their ILM Introductory Certificate in Team Leading. I especially remember Bashir, Naji and Jamal, the 3 guys holding their certificates who were the chatty guys of the group, we worked hard together, had some great discussions and some great fun. I remember those days fondly and wonder what happened to these guys.