Joanne Harris

Leadership & Management at ClearSky

Joanne Harris is currently employed by ClearSky under the Optionis group in Warrington as a Personal Accountant and started her Level 3 apprenticeship in Team Leading & Management with Paragon Skills in Jan 2018. This apprenticeship includes ILM (Institute of Leadership and Management) accreditation and is a highly sought after qualification in management. This opportunity was presented to Joanne through the Optionis dedicated apprenticeship scheme that we have been working in partnership to deliver since 2017.

Joanne chose this apprenticeship to enhance her management and leadership skills, and she is already seeing the benefits of this in her career. She wanted to learn about the different management and leadership styles and as part of her apprenticeship has had to assess her own leadership style.

During the training, Joanne has learnt about new leadership and learning styles and has already started to apply this knowledge to her own role as a manager. The training has also enabled her to see the value of spending time on self-reflection in order to identify areas of her own strengths and weaknesses.

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I have really enjoyed completing the workbooks and reading further on the topics raised and I really enjoyed completing the learning styles tests and analysing the results of my team.

The experience in the workplace is valuable as it allows me to apply the theory from the lectures and workbooks immediately which helps to consolidate my knowledge. I am gaining hands-on management experience as I have a team of three to manage.

Joanne’s thoughts on the apprenticeship so far

Joanne plans to continue to progress within the ClearSky organisation and in the short term would like to finish her Team Leading apprenticeship and gain her ILM Diploma. Furthermore, she will complete further technical training with the Chartered Institute of Taxation.

Joanne says that her Personal Tutor – Keith McCall has been great. It’s clear what is required of her and though the time scales are challenging, they are reasonable.

Joanne is keen to progress her career within Clearsky with hopes for a more senior management role in the future, and she has already signed up to start her next level of apprenticeship with Paragon Skills.

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