CPD helps me keep pace with evolving career

To this day, I still wonder how I arrived at this role. They say: “What’s for you won’t go by you”. In my case, I feel I was steered in the direction I have taken over the years. This is a small insight into my CPD journey.

I was diagnosed as dyslexic at the age of six. At that time, no one really knew what dyslexia was, so I was told by my teachers I was “stupid”. I was treated differently. All my report cards said the same thing: “Jaci needs to try harder”. I didn’t let this get me down. If anything, it made me stronger.

I enrolled in college to do a catering qualification but was allergic to the metal benches. I turned to learning food service instead. Being left-handed, I was told I could never silver serve, but again I proved them wrong.

After leaving college, I went on to be a general assistant in a 20-bedroom hotel in England. I moved to Scotland with my husband and joined a hotel group, making my way up to supervisor very quickly. In 1987, I was transferred to a brand-new hotel as banqueting supervisor and then banqueting manager. The hotel group was bought out and a lot of changes took place.

So, how did I end up here?

I had an accident brought on by very poor manual handling. After a year of recovery, I was asked to oversee health and safety. So, with very little training, I started to bring it up to date. I soon realised that none of the health and safety had been updated since the hotel had opened.

I improved my knowledge and experience, to the point we topped the list for health and safety in the hotel chain. When the hotel closed, I was made redundant. I felt too old to look for another job, but I popped my determined head back on and did more training.

I was interviewed for a venues co-ordinator post. This was my first step into theatre and concert hall work. Two years later, I ended up at Dundee Rep as Facilities Manager. This was when I joined IOSH – and I have never looked back.

My role at the theatre has slowly changed from health and safety and facilities and a bit of environmental to revolving around sustainability, adaptation and mitigation. Two years ago, I was promoted to Head of Operations/Facilities and have enjoyed the journey greatly.

My CPD tips

My CPD cycle begins in November, so straight away I think about the upcoming year and some of the things I need to achieve. I then add clear goals to my CPD plan.

I like to start with Blueprint activities. I choose courses that you can do when you have a few spare minutes, as some are only 15 minutes. I try to spread out my activities throughout the year.

As a mental health first aider, I participated in neurodiversity training and found out that being dyslexic makes me neurodiverse. Being dyslexic means I find it difficult to read large amounts, so I find webinars and face-to-face courses help a lot. I attended a webinar on silica and dust to allow us to redesign the LEV in our workshops to be more efficient.

I also find it very important to complete my Blueprint record straight away. Writing my reflection helps me to understand more of the information I have learnt. It takes a while to work things out, so I find this a second way of refreshing information.

Every day I am on a learning curve and, at 58 years old, I find I am still learning. In the past 10 years I have completed numerous courses and now train others, including the IOSH Managing Safely® course.