Susan Wright, currently a General Manager for one of Mitchells & Butlers Harvester restaurants, has worked in hospitality for over 25 years. With three sons at school, she knows she isn’t a typical apprentice.
With her opportunity at Further Education taken away, Susan followed her partner into hospitality management. Consequently, as their family grew, her progression was unstructured with knowledge gaps she had made up for in experience.
Becoming a General Manager of a Harvester in 2015, Susan’s aim was to learn how to become the best manager she could be. With her role including looking after the day-to-day running of the business, she first took up the Level 5 Operations Manager apprenticeship as she wanted to:
“learn how to transform goals into clear action plans, leadership training methods, communication confidence, and become comfortable with technology and IT.”
Improve, Learn, Achieve
Since starting the apprenticeship, Susan improved and increased her skills, becoming a successful manager, with her business ranking highly on the scorecard across numerous measures.
In a business as large as M&B, employees are constantly adapting changes and development in technology, the way they work as well as new business priorities. The apprenticeship provides Susan with the confidence to be a forerunner in adopting these changes, and gives her a greater understanding of the need behind them.
Since the apprenticeship, Susan’s managerial performance has not gone unnoticed, and she has been noted as a ‘Top performer’.
Advocating Apprenticeships
Susan encourages all her team to consider apprenticeships. Already, two team members have completed an apprenticeship and her team are currently supporting a front-of-house recruited apprentice who joined with no previous experience of the industry. Last month, she encouraged a further two of her team to start working towards an apprenticeship which will inevitably support their learning.
Susan and her business continue to improve. Her restaurant continues to move up company rankings and hopefully, one day reach the top. Coming to the apprenticeship later in life and with no formal qualifications, she hasn’t let anything stop her in her quest to be the best manager she can be.
To find out more about Mitchells & Butlers apprenticeships, click here.
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