Apprentice to Professional
Issie - Executive Personal Assistant
My name is Issie and I am currently the Executive Personal Assistant to Jennie Stephens, the Chief Officer for Adult Care and Health at Devon County Council.
I started my journey with DCC as an apprentice in 2013. At 19 years old, the year after I had left Sixth Form having completed my A-Levels with most of my friends having gone to university, I was working part-time in retail and struggling to find a way into a more permanent job/career. Everywhere you applied for entry-level roles required you to have “experience”, the one thing you couldn’t get without having a job first!
That is when I saw a job being advertised locally in Totnes, where I lived, with Devon County Council. It was a Level 2 Customer Service Apprenticeship, working for Learn Devon (DCC’s adult education service). This was an entry-level role, that would allow me to have a secure salary, gain valuable experience for my CV, earn an NVQ Level 2 qualification in Customer Service, and do on-the-job training. It was truly the most perfect opportunity.
This role was initially a two-year contract, which meant that myself and the other four Customer Service Apprentices that were hired by Learn Devon at the same time, had the opportunity to progress to complete a Level 3 NVQ qualification in Business Administration.
In order to complete these apprenticeships, as we worked we were asked to gather evidence of work we were doing which made up our portfolio of work for the NVQ. We also had some theory to write, which we did through a classroom set-up with the support of our wonderful tutor, Jac. The days where we all got together were great fun and I still look back to them with fond memories, with friends who I still speak to now.
In 2015, as I approached the final 6 months of my Level 3 Apprenticeship, having already completed the Level 2 qualification, I began to look for my next opportunity. Within a very short period of looking I found a Level 4 Apprenticeship, still with DCC, as a Higher Level Personal Assistant Apprentice based within the Leadership Support Team at County Hall.
Following an application and interview process I was successful and began my Level 4 Apprenticeship in March 2015. The following few months turned into a bit of a whirlwind, and within 6 months I had gained a permanent position within the Leadership Support Team as an Executive Personal Assistant to the Strategic Director of People (now the Chief Officer for Adult Care and Health).
A huge part of why I chose to do my original apprenticeship and the continued Level 4 apprenticeship, was for the invaluable experience you are able to gain while training on the job. My Level 2 and Level 3 set me in perfect stead to apply for the higher level apprenticeship, which then opened the door to my permanent role.
I have now been happily in the role as an Executive Personal Assistant for 6 and a half years. A normal day for me includes supporting the Chief Officer to meet all of her business needs, which includes diary management (very much like a game of Tetris!), email management, building relationships with people across the organisation and across the Adult Care and Health system, arranging meetings, planning papers and agendas for meetings and much, much more. No two days are ever the same, and there’s never a dull or quiet moment – which I love!
Earlier this year I felt the time was right for a new challenge, and applied for a new role within NHS Devon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)– my role as Executive PA to the Chief Officer for Adult Care and Health has allowed me to learn and gain huge amounts of knowledge about the health and care system, and I felt in a good position to be able to use that understanding of the system in applying for the new role. Fortunately, I was successful following an interview process, and will sadly be leaving Devon County Council at the end of March 2022 to become Business Manager to the Deputy Chief Executive of NHS Devon CCG.
Without completing those apprenticeships early on in my career, I never would have been able to get the wealth of knowledge and experience I now have, which has enabled me to reach for and achieve new goals. I will forever be grateful to Devon County Council for taking a chance on myself and many other wonderful apprentices who I have met along the way. I have always spoken highly of the DCC Apprenticeship Scheme, and I will continue to do so for a long, long time to come. Apprenticeships are an excellent way for young people (and older people looking to change career paths) to get the experience needed to start a career – and DCC is an amazing place to do so.
Issie
Executive Personal Assistant
Central Support - Leadership Support
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