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Hi, My name’s Rose and I am the Education and Training Programme Coordinator here at the EDA.

My CEO Margaret thinks it would be a great idea for me to keep an online diary and with everyone back to school and work, I thought now would be a great time to look back on summer and show you all my goings on here at EDA HQ! You may be wondering why there is a picture of me on a waterfall in Snowdonia – yes, that’s me in the red – read on and find out if I got to the top.

July was a landmark month for me as I celebrated my one-year anniversary here at the EDA. What a busy but great year it has been, jam packed with exciting new opportunities and lots of learning. So to get the ball rolling on my monthly blog I thought I would share some of my personal highlights from my first year:

Highlights so far…

With Margaret Fitzsimons, CEO at the EDA, receiving my certificate for a Distinction in Customer Services.

Completed an EDA Product Knowledge Module: a great way to get introduced to the industry as this module is aimed at how a Wholesalers works. I flew through this module and only took 5 out of the 10 weeks to complete. This worked out about an hour a day and I divided it up by doing some at work and home.

Attending 4 Forums across the UK and having the opportunity to speak and meet all our Members and Affiliated Members. I am now in charge of running the Forums – this means I find the location, promote it and send all the information to the delegates. This was a new and nerve racking one for me as I had my first opportunity to speak in front of a large room of delegates, something I have never done before. I survived it though.

And finally getting to see all the wonderful Apprentices and Product Knowledge Learners receiving awards at our EDA Learning Achievement Awards in March. Each year we hold an awards luncheon for all the best performing EDA Apprentices and Product Knowledge Learners. This is by far my favourite event of the year as it celebrates all the top performers.

In the last week….

There’s been lots going on. Here’s just a quick sum up

• 2nd Sept: Submitted our suite of Modules to the CPD for accreditation
• 4th Sept: Mo Mayat from the National Apprenticeship Service in to talk about the support we can give to our members
• 6th Sept: We hit our 1000th module sold this year!
• 9th Sept: I had my first Progress Review with my Training Provider
• 25th Sept: Macclesfield Forum

Last but not least…

I started my own journey as an apprentice as I began my Learning and Development Business Consultant Lvl 5, which I enrolled in May. So far had two seminars and a Webinar. What I have enjoyed the most about learning again is the seminars, my most recent one was on the psychology of learning and how we intake and store information. It has also been great meeting fellow learners on my course who come from all different backgrounds.

Here I am leading my group presentation on what we believe resilience in the work place is

I had the opportunity to travel to Snowdonia at the end of August as part of my off the job training. The workshops were all based around the three key Behaviours laid out in the Standard – Resilience, Flexibility and Agility.

Here I am being helped up during the climb

We did some fun activities too like Gorge walking, which involves climbing up through a waterfall, it was all about navigation and thinking about your next step. We made it to the top, with a stop in between for sandwiches. On the final day the group was  split up in to two teams to build rafts to race which was aimed at focusing on how we communicate and support one another. All in all, it was an amazing experience that pushed me out of my comfort zone.

Before I go…

Did you know that any Employer in England that is taking on a 19-24-year-old Apprentice who has previously been in care or who has a Local Authority Education – the Government will give a cash bonus of £1000. Payment will be made via the Training Provider assigned to the Apprentice to pass on to you. Two payments of £500 will be made at Month 3 and 12.

The Department for Education states that “Apprentices aged 19-24 who have previously been in care… may need extra support and we recognise this can represent an extra cost to employers.” Want to read more? Check out the full report here.