CIPD Learner Stories: Lucy Warman

Lucy completed her CIPD Level 5 Diploma in HR with DPG in record-breaking time! Find out more about her story below. 

I have a passion for the hospitality and the service industry and would say I'm a people-focused person.

Driven and highly organised, I am motivated by achievement and thrive on supporting people at work and contributing to business goals, be it through HR, recruitment or training.

After graduation, I started my career in hospitality, as a restaurant manager. I was then promoted to Assistant Food & Beverage Manager, an operational role with responsibility for HR, recruitment and training of the division (11 restaurants and bars and 300 staff). I received lots of management training and became a qualified company trainer.  

I later joined Norwegian Cruise Lines as a Maitre D’ and then was again promoted to Assistant F&B Manager. Returning to land I moved into luxury hotels and retail in Personnel & Training Manager roles (as well as a short stint as Deputy General Manager at Babington House). Then, four years ago, I set up my company, Surge Ahead Ltd, aiming to provide HR, recruitment and training support to SMEs.

I initially had some HR contracts, until the function was taken in-house, and I also provided ad hoc management training in service-based businesses. Soon, Surge Ahead organically became much more focused on recruitment, initially within hospitality and latterly across all sectors.

During the pandemic, recruitment was hugely affected, so I made the decision to furlough. Having never not worked, and my teenage daughter not requiring huge support with home-schooling, I needed something else to focus on.  

I had been procrastinating for years over getting HR qualified to match my experience within HR and decided it was the perfect time to do it. I thoroughly enjoy all aspects of working in HR and my previous generalist experience gave me a good grounding in all areas.  

Knowing full well that I had the inclination and drive to dedicate a lot of time to the course, the flexibility with DPG made it more appealing than other providers. 

I was also impressed with the speed at which my initial enquiry was responded to, as well as all the information provided. It sealed my decision when I was able to preview the learning system.

As a trainer myself, I found the fictional client scenarios particularly useful as being an owner-operator of my own business, I did not have my own organisation to base assessments on.

I loved the layout of the course with online lessons and the online learning platform was easy to use and I liked the layout.

I only really needed help twice from a facilitator, once in the very early stages, however, they were absolutely amazing.  I liked that they were totally unobtrusive but that you knew that they were on hand should you need any support.

I put in between 40 and 50 hours per week and did just under a module a week.  I essentially substituted my normal working day with studying. 

Typically, I studied anywhere between 6 and 11 hours per day, depending on how much I got into modules.  I finished the course in 50 days but then waited for the last couple of assessments to be marked.

Although it seems like I would have had no life, I had no work to juggle with the course and no small children to entertain. As we were also in lockdown, there wasn’t anything social that I was missing out on either, as nobody could go anywhere or do anything! So, I wanted to get the course done whilst life was essentially on hold. I also wanted to get it done before the school holidays so that I could spend that time with my daughter.

Apart from a few 11pm finishes, I rarely studied past 8pm and I never studied at the weekend. I found it easy to fit into normal life (but it helps to have a husband who is happy to cook!).  Utilising strong time management and organisation skills helped too, along with a determined but flexible attitude.

My advice would be to use all the support that is there offered to you and work at a pace that suits your life.

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