Training Manager

Simon Mayo

Working for the Rossendale Trust is not just a job, it is a career choice. Training Manager, Simon Mayo, tells us about how his career has progressed since joining the Trust as a Support Worker in 2012.

Before I joined Rossendale Trust I was working in the retail and customer service sector. The hours weren’t great, the work was the same every day and I felt that I had so much more to offer. My wife was already working in health and social care, and I started thinking that it might be the right job for me, even though I had no experience in the care sector.

I applied to be a Support Worker at the Trust as the position sounded interesting and varied and didn’t require any experience. What matters most is that you have good interpersonal and communication skills, patience, empathy and the ability to adapt to change – and I suppose some personal resilience too!

Working with the tenants at Rossendale Trust was so rewarding and no two days were the same. I was slightly apprehensive about providing personal care, but it is just a part of our tenant’s everyday life, so nothing was awkward for them and it just became the norm. With the supported living model, the emphasis is very much on working with people rather than working for them and I spent a lot of time helping people in our care become as independent as possible to allow them to make real choices in how they live their lives. We have a wide variety of tenants, some with more complex needs than others, but I found that the more adept you became at supporting them, the more opportunities there were to link into other job openings within the Trust.

A full range of training was provided by the Trust starting with the completion of an initial care certificate which then led to achieving my Level 3 Certificate in Health and Social Care. After gaining these qualifications and more experience, I progressed to the position of Senior Support Worker before working my way up to Group Leader where I stayed for 4 years.

It was at this time that the Trust was looking at how it could restructure to introduce a more formal in-house training programme. Training was a role that I was really interested in having already been involved in delivering some courses as Group Leader. I was successful in my application for the position of Training Manager, a new role which gave me lots of scope and opportunity to develop and design courses tailor made for the Trust. Ongoing training is now delivered to every member of staff with a formal structure of core courses for new starters too. I deliver this in a variety of ways including e-learning, which allows staff to complete modules in their own time and at their own pace, alongside face to face courses delivered in-house.

The Trust is a great organisation to work for as everyone is given the opportunity to develop new skills and are encouraged to think about their possible career progression. I feel that I have always been very well supported by Rossendale, both personally in managing my work/life balance, as well as professionally in my career.