Yudu - Ex PA Magazine Aug September 2010

AMAZING ACHIEVEMENTS

Left Barbara Westwood, MBE, PA to the Chief Executive at Ufi/learndirect

receive. Candidates can be put forward at any point during the year and honours are awarded twice annually: at New Year and in mid-June on the Queen’s official birthday.

In good company

One MBE holder that has more than just an inkling of how she came to the attention of the Queen is Clare Wright, PA to the Principal at Warwickshire College. Clare was appointed MBE in the most recent New Year Honours List and her current boss, Ioan Morgan, ‘fessed up to having nominated her, though that’s not to say he was the first to notice her dedication to her job. Clare has been working at the college under its vari- ous guises since 1983, when she started as an Office Manager at what was then the College of Agriculture at Moreton Morrell. Prior to that institution being brought under the umbrella of her current employer in 1996, Clare and a colleague recognised that it was under threat of closure and decided to take matters into their own hands. Proving she was never afraid to go above and beyond for her job, Clare helped organise a series of events aimed at bringing the college to the attention of the wider community – opening up the estate to week- end visitors, holding Victorian Fayres, afternoon teas and even an open air concert. Since then, Warwickshire College has been involved in further consolidation and Clare says the constant change in the education sector helps keep life interesting.

Rewarding role “Ioan has worked to put Warwickshire College through further mergers and I’ve worked with him closely to estab- lish good working relationships. When mergers happen, people feel vulnerable and they can only ever judge it real- ly as a takeover from the bigger organisation, so to work with Ioan to make people feel comfortable and confident in the new future was very satisfying,” she says. Clare says she particularly enjoys the variety involved

in working with a college principal. “A great deal of responsibility is laid on your shoulders. First of all you have to develop a good working relationship with your boss and you also need to be able to ensure the smooth running of the organisation,” says Clare. “When he’s away from the office, you have to know how to respond to things, you have to keep the show on the road and you have to be able to work well with other executives. “You need to know how your whole organisation functions – the procedures and the policies etc – so that you can deal with any situation. It is a different role than working in a more focused area because you have a broader overview of the operation.” Asked whether she’ll

Other

opportunities to shine

Aside from leaving a copy of this article on your colleagues’ and boss’ desks and hoping for the best, there are other ways to boost the achievements section of your CV. Nominations are still open for the 2010 Executive PA Magazine Awards – but the nomination process closes on 8th September. These annual awards recognise the hard work and value that PAs bring to UK businesses and the prestigious honour is handed out to the nation’s finest PAs. To find out how you can nominate yourself or a colleague visit www.ExecutivePA.com/awards.

be describing herself as Clare Wright, MBE in future, Clare is unsure she’ll be doing so as a matter of routine, but certainly plans to do so when the occasion calls for it.

CV update Beverley Carter, who was awarded an MBE back in 2007, says though she has no plans to move on from her role as a PA in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, judging by the excitement of her colleagues the addition of those three little letters could certainly come in handy on her resume. “Everybody was very pleased for me. I got a lot of leg pulling as well. But they said ‘you really deserve it’ and it is such an achievement. I was very emotional at the time but also really, really pleased. “I often think if I did want to move on elsewhere completely outside a government department, I would obviously put that I had an MBE on my CV. Depending on what the job was for I think that would definitely help me to get into an organisation,” she says. Having worked in government departments for over

20 years, Beverley has had the opportunity to work closely with a wide range of senior civil servants and government ministers. But she says being handed her MBE by Prince Charles was in a different league alto- gether: “It was marvellous and I was able to take my hus- band and sister along with me as well. I was so nervous as it was unbelievable to go to Buckingham Palace.”

For more information about the honours system, search for ‘UK Honours System’ on www.direct.gov.uk.