After gaining a B.A (Hons.) in English from King’s College, London , Tricia took the professional teaching qualification P.G.C.E. She spent a few years teaching in secondary schools before deciding on a career change. At the end of a 6-month course in Systems Analysis and Design she moved into IT lecturing, first with a government-sponsored training company then with Littlewoods Management Services. Over the next few years she developed and delivered a range of courses covering Systems Analysis, programming (using COBOL, DMIV and TP) and JCL, and database structure and design. Her major responsibility was the annual training programme for the company’s graduate recruits.
In 1985 Tricia became lecturer in charge of the BTEC National Diploma in Computing courses at Knowsley Tertiary College. She and a colleague developed a highly successful course which enabled many young people to go on to Higher education, and incidentally added Pascal and PC products to her own skills. She returned to Littlewoods in 1990. As principal lecturer, later deputy manager, she redeveloped the company’s Personal Development and Management portfolio for its IT department, then numbering over 700 staff.
From 1992 she assimilated PC training into the department, managing staff and schedules and providing comprehensive training both for the company’s IT department and for the 2000 or so PC users on a number of sites. She increased her involvement with the graduate intake, including interviewing and assessing. At the same time she studied part time for a Master’s Degree in Education, writing her dissertation on Management Development within Littlewoods IT, and gaining that qualification in 1994.
From 1997 to 2000 Tricia was manager of the Littlewoods IT Training Department, managing a budget in excess of £.5m and a staff of 8. She added training in bespoke applications to the department’s responsibilities, which entailed extensive liaison with other business and IT managers. In 1999, in a major project lasting almost 9 months, the company rolled out a PC / Office systems upgrade to over 2000 users. Tricia co-ordinated timely training provision for all staff.
At the end of 2000 Tricia formed her own training and consultancy company, Clearer Thoughts Ltd., on Merseyside. She is pleased to be working in partnership with A2Z Training, complementing one another’s work in these fields |