Luke left school with good GCSE grades, but was uncertain what he wanted to do as a career. He was led in the direction of a maintenance diploma at Eastleigh College, since most of his family worked in the trades, but he quickly realised this wasn’t for him.
He began working in a range of different roles, from a children’s play centre to Debenhams, but despite the fact he was earning money he realised that he wasn’t doing anything to improve his future prospects.
Luke had always liked the idea of going to work in a suit, so decided that Business Administration would be a good starting point into a career. He joined the College on Level 2 before progressing to Level 3, taking part in multiple work experience opportunities during the course. These included working for Red Funnel, and asset finance company Liberty Leasing Plc.
One year and 4 week’s work experience later, Luke was offered a full-time position as a Sales Administrator at Liberty Leasing. Within two years he had been promoted twice, and is now a Trainee Account Manager. His role involves liaising with brokers, signing up deals for the company all over the country.
Commenting on his new role, Luke said, “At Liberty, every day is different. You deal with various customers from all walks of life and you get to meet loads of different characters. Having the opportunity to travel around the country and meet loads of new people is something I did not expect to be doing so soon after college.”
Luke believes the skills and information he learned during his Business Admin qualification were essential to excelling in his business now, “To know the basics of a business environment is massive going into the outside world. Learning policies and procedures has helped me embrace the working environment.”
Finding the career you want is much more important than spending the day with your mates in a classroom, on a course you don’t even care about.
Over the next few years Luke plans to continue to embrace challenges at work, and enhance his knowledge in the hope that he will eventually get promoted to a Senior Account Manager at Liberty Leasing.
His advice to his peers is to think about what you want to do with your life rather than focusing on your social scene – “you get time to spend with your friends outside of work anyway,” he says. He also warns away from going to a college or University just because your friends are going, which is initially what he did after leaving school. Luke is pleased he realised early on what he wanted from a career, and chose to study towards this.
To find out more about Business Admin courses, please visit our courses page or contact one of our Information, Advice and Guidance advisors on 023 8091 1299.
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