Serish’s Story

Summary

• Service Area: HOT – Enterprise, Central Services & Apprenticeships
• Professional Development: career progression and working towards Compliance and Auditing role
• Values: We Care & We are Committed

Halifax Opportunities Trust (HOT) is a charity driven by community and takes a holistic, whole person approach to working with people. We encourage growth; this doesn’t stop with the people who access our services, it extends throughout the Trust and to the people who help deliver them.

We want our employees to feel valued, fulfilled and part of something bigger, this means being flexible to their aspirations and supporting their professional development. Serish Majid joined Halifax Opportunities Trust in 2009, embarking on a fulfilling professional development journey.

The first step on the ladder

Initially quite shy and introverted, Serish started her career as an apprentice when she was 16. This was delivered by HOT, where she gained a qualification in Business Administration while being work-based at our socially enterprising business hub, Elsie Whiteley Innovation Centre.

Once qualified Serish started working as a permanent member of the reception team at the Centre. Here, she was able to build her confidence through the regular interaction she had with tenants and visitors to Elsie Whiteley, as well as her colleagues.

Through increased confidence came a thirst for learning new things and taking on more responsibilities. Serish gradually built up her role and started fulfilling various new duties, which also meant supporting sister organisation Hanson Lane Enterprise Centre and the reception team that is based there.

New skills and roles

Through such varied work, Serish gained a range of soft skills that have helped her to progress in her career journey as well as build strong relationships with employees from a number of departments throughout the Trust.

In 2020 Serish took on two additional roles. The first as a debt collector in HOT’s Central Finance Team, where she gained experience in financial record keeping and debt processes in finance. The second role as a Quality & Systems Assistant, supporting the departmental Lead with archiving, data retention, data analysis and quality processes for Apprenticeship accreditations.

Through both roles Serish has developed a wide range of skills that can be used in a number of different roles; such as organisation skills, collaboration and peer support.

Professional Growth

Serish has grown in confidence even more over the last three years and developed the skills that helped her to better understand Cyber Security, she has worked and set up the system of HOT users and permissions, including relevant system updates all in line with preparation for the accreditation of Cyber Essentials.

As part of the two new roles, Serish also worked with the Apprenticeships Team which sits alongside Quality and Systems. Here, Serish has been invaluable with the support she has given both to the team and the Apprentices studying ICT. She has delivered training and supported learners with practice tests which has been instrumental in enabling learners to achieve their ICT functional skills.

Apprenticeships Delivery & Training Manager, Comments: “The whole team appreciate the knowledge that Serish has of IT systems etc. and she is always willing to share and support with this. We look forward to continuing and developing the relationship we have established.”

Quality & System Lead, comments: “Serish has started this journey in supporting development of the internal audit filing system within the apprenticeship’s delivery. I am looking forward to working with Serish and seeing her development progressing into compliance and audit as both sides play an essential role in the governance and inform performance of the organisation and its effectiveness.”

A career in Compliance & Auditing

Recently (2022), Serish was employed full-time in a Compliance and Audit role. Her career progression has meant that she can learn new skills while honing the skills she already possesses, to build a career that suits her future goals and aspirations.

Quality & System Lead, comments: “Serish’s new role has been received very positively and supported an opening of a new and more structured approach to auditing regime, looking into quality assurance and analysing the findings.

“Serish is very keen to learn and demonstrate a great can-do attitude, where she is conscientious and focussed on doing things right and more importantly, right first time. Serish is progressing now into learning and upskilling into more streamlined approach within the field of compliance and audit.

A HOT future

With over 10 years’ experience working at Halifax Opportunities Trust and a wide range of skills and knowledge, Serish has a bright future ahead of her. Serish is passionate about Compliance & Auditing and acknowledges that the many opportunities provided by the Trust have helped her to embark on the start of a fulfilling career journey.

Serish comments: “Since I started working for Halifax Opportunities Trust as an apprentice, I have moved between a variety of roles and settings to gain lots of experience. I have gained more confidence and met some wonderful people while working in different roles. I now share my journey and look forward to building a career in quality, auditing and systems.”