Q&A with Helen Bradley

I completed the Imperial College and Corndel Executive Development Programme (Level 7), a 14-month programme. In my role, I work alongside C-suite executives and Learning & Development professionals to advise, guide, and support learning interventions for their global employees. It had been some time since I had demonstrated my personal commitment to a significant learning initiative. While I regularly undertake CPD for my role as a business psychologist, I was looking for a more structured professional programme that I could commit to alongside my work. The Apprenticeship Levy was the ideal solution, as it allowed me to learn while working, apply new knowledge, skills, and approaches that directly benefitted me, my colleagues, and our clients.

I gained more knowledge of frameworks for change management and a more formal understanding of governance structures, including financial and legal aspects. The apprenticeship also helped me update my knowledge on the latest research regarding soft skills, such as emotional intelligence.

It has reminded me to step back from the day-to-day and take a broader view of my role and my contribution to the team. This has helped me prioritise important, future-facing activities, like pipeline building, rather than getting drawn into day-to-day client tasks, which others are often better equipped to handle.

Learning new tools and techniques and being able to apply them directly in my day-to-day work. By creating a portfolio of evidence as part of the programme’s requirements, I was able to demonstrate that I had understood the theory, applied it, and seen tangible outcomes. It’s a satisfying process to go from reading about a theory or concept to using it in real-world situations. 
 

The apprenticeship highlighted how much change management is part of my role, more so than I had realised before. The frameworks I learned have helped me approach my work with clients and colleagues more effectively, guiding them through the ambiguity that change often creates. They help bring structure and clarity, offering parameters and guidelines, even if only temporarily. I also work in a matrix structure, so understanding my role as an informal leader and coach has allowed me to guide and challenge people to bring more to the team than they may have realised they could.

My role is unpredictable, and it's not a standard 9-5. Because of this, I had to anticipate peak periods and read ahead, completing modules earlier than planned to give myself flexibility when client deadlines loomed. I also found that the approach I took for modular study was different from the work required for my strategic business proposal. The modular study could be tackled in smaller, bite-sized chunks across the week, whereas the business proposal needed dedicated, longer periods to speak with stakeholders, gather information, make sense of it, and then write up my ideas.

I’d recommend reading thoroughly about the programme, understanding what it covers, the time commitment involved, and how it aligns with your role. Consider both the personal and business cases for undertaking an apprenticeship. Talk to your line manager and your family and friends about why you want to do it and the benefits it will bring to you personally, as well as to the organisation. This process really helped me test my motivation and commitment to completing the programme. Both my line manager and Department Director were incredibly supportive, helping me manage work commitments to protect my study time (20% of my working week) and assisting me in developing my strategic business proposal, which would benefit the team.

Apprenticeships are invaluable for many reasons. They offer wider access to professional qualifications for those already in employment, enabling people to re-skill and become future-ready. For those entering the job market, apprenticeships provide the opportunity to learn while working, gaining a recognised, transferable qualification alongside their job. Regardless of age, seniority, or educational background, we all need to continuously learn or refresh our skills, knowledge, and behaviours at work to be as effective as we can be. Apprenticeships are an important part of the professional development toolkit, helping employers' future-proof their workforce, particularly through funding that they can directly or indirectly access depending on their wage bill.