MEET THE TEAM

Mark Durham

Mark Durham

Chief Executive

I left school and went straight into work as a Motor Vehicle Craft Apprentice for a Renault main dealership. Soon after completing my four-year apprenticeship I was promoted within the company. I moved from the main workshop to the control of the car sales department preparing all the new and used vehicles for sale. One of my roles was to fit Britax sunroofs in the vehicles and on one particular ‘open house’ event, was asked to demonstrate this on a brand new car, with the customer and other public watching! Everyone watched to see if I were to make a mistake, but all was good thankfully.

The business became extremely successful, gaining new contracts and so needed to expand. New premises were found away from the dealership and I was promoted to vehicle preparation manager and ran the centre successfully for around 15 years. We were taken over by Renault UK and I was then surplus to requirements. I moved to a large main dealership under Renault UK carrying out quality control and rectifying repeat faults to ensure good customer service.

I had the opportunity to take redundancy, which I did and moved across to BT and started a new career as a customer service engineer. I did this for around a year and my personal circumstances made me rethink my path, so I returned to Renault as a service technician and quality controller. As with all businesses, it became difficult to maintain quality in a pressured environment which disillusioned me somewhat.

I applied to the Training Trust as a liaison officer for the motor vehicle and plumbing apprenticeship programmes. After a short while, I gained my assessor award and assessed the motor vehicle apprentices assisting them to successful completions. A vacancy became available as a quality improvement manager, I applied internally and was promoted to the position seeing us through two successful Ofsted inspections.

After the chief Executive resigned, selection and interviews took place by the trustees and I was fortunate to be offered the role. I have been with the Training Trust for nearly 17 years now and have enjoyed my time here immensely, supporting people of all ages into their chosen career path. It is so satisfying to see someone who really was unsure of what they wanted to do in their job, to turn into a competent tradesperson and even run their own businesses.

June Gray

June Gray

Quality and Business Improvement Manager

After completing my N.N.E.B. at college I worked my way up from a Nursery Assistant to a Senior Nursery office. After 20 year of working with children, I decided on a career change and became a freelanced Childcare Assessor and Internal Verifier. In 2004 I completed my Certificate in Education which allowed me to secure a full-time position teaching Childcare apprentices at the Training Trust.

In 2015 the opportunity arose for me to apply for my current role Quality and Business Improvement Manager. I love my job it keeps me very busy. I also completed my level 5 in management which I am really proud of.

Sue Andrews

Sue Andrews

Operations Supervisor

After completing my NNEB at Waltham Forest College in 1996 I worked in a day Nursery as a Nursery Nurse for 13 years.

After I had my 3rd child I became a registered childminder which allowed me to continue my professional development while caring for my young children.

In 2009 I began volunteering at the local Sure Start Centre and was eventually given a paid position as an Early Years practitioner. Through the Sure Start Centre I became the Outreach Link Worker for the Family Centre supporting pregnant women until their child reached the age of 5. I gained my skills including becoming a Unicef’s Baby friendly Practitioner and a Public health Quit Smoking Advisor.

In 2016 I successfully applied to become an Outreach Worker for the Children’s Centre allowing me to work on a one to one basis with our most venerable families to bridge the gap and to allow children to have the best possible outcomes. I built a wide understanding of benefits system, housing, mental health, Education and returning to work.

I have been with the Training Trust for almost 3 years and have been the Liaison officer for a variety of programmes including childcare, construction, business administration and plumbing as well as overseeing the maths and English functional skills qualification. This has given me a good understanding of the Training Trusts delivery.

Since being at the Training Trust, I have gained my assessors award and my level 3 awarding in Education and Training.

I recently applied, and was successful in becoming the Training Trust’s Operations Supervisor. I am very excited to support the growth and expansion of the Training Trust in our new building.

Dab Andrews

Dab Andrews

Office Dog

I have recently started joining Mum at work. I am taking my role as office dog very seriously. My most enjoyable part of the day is to demonstrate cuteness and lay on my back...this brings in all the treats and belly rubs.

I am enjoying meeting all of our apprentices and making sure they work hard.

My talent is having the loudest bark for a tiny pooch. I will protect Mum at all costs from the evil postman!

If you want to see more about my days as the office dog then please follow the Training Trust TikTok page by clicking on my photo.

Vicky Day

Vicky Day

Contracts Officer

I have over 20 years’ experience working in the government sector dealing with funding and training. I have been working here since 2014 and my role has continued to develop and grow. Working here has increased my skill set greatly due to the continual changes to Apprenticeships and funding. I really enjoy my job and thrive on supporting my colleagues and our learners.

Satwant Jandu

Satwant Jandu

Electrical Tutor

After my qualification as an electrical engineer, I gained over 42 years hands on experience in design, construction, Inspection and testing of Electrical Installations. I have vast experience in designing and building switch boards and control panels for heavy industry and processing plants and installation of electric motors. I have also carried out all kinds of electrical installations in industrial, commercial and domestic properties.

I hope to pass on the knowledge I have gained over the years to the upcoming generation of electricians and am very pleased to have been given this opportunity at Training Trust.

I have gained teaching and assessing qualifications while working with Training Trust, and I receive tremendous support from my colleagues while we continue to train our learners who are aspiring for a great future ahead.

The new premises of Training Trust at Bourne Court has a larger area for the Electrical installation department and with the excellent classroom and workshop facilities I have been able to provide much needed practical training to our learners in addition to the theoretical part of the Electrical installation course.

Caroline Kennedy

Caroline Kennedy

Electrical Liaison Officer

After I left school I went to work for a recording studio as a admin assistant, I then went onto working in the record and reprographics industry as a production assistant, dealing with bands artwork for their new releases.

After I had my son, I volunteered at his primary school and attended college where I studied for a Cache Level 2 childcare qualification. I was offered a job as a teacher assistant, working and supporting children in key stage 1 and 2 for 9 years which I thoroughly enjoyed.

I then joined Training Trust for a new challenge!

Roksana Koszczal

Recruitment & Marketing Apprentice

Katy Lee

Business Administration Tutor & Liaison Officer
Kate Moe-Geke

Kate Moe-Geke

Childcare and Teaching Assistant Liaison Officer

After my 3rd child was born I was keen to start a fresh career from my previous work in the City and enrolled with a European funded child care course that gave me the opportunity to study child care abroad as well as in the UK. During my studies I also visited Dublin and East Germany to study child care provision, which was enlightening. I then worked in childcare in a pre-school and was also a parent governor for both primary and secondary schools for 15 years. Because of my passion for education I was always focused on moving on to achieving my degree in education so I could start to teach child care.

I have now been assessing and teaching childcare for over 20 years mainly around the Redbridge and Waltham Forest boroughs. I am immensely proud of the achievements of many of my learners who have gone on to accomplish fantastic successes in their own careers including opening their own nurseries, starting up child care businesses, going into teaching, becoming managers of nurseries and gaining higher qualifications as they progressed with their own careers.

Samia Shabbir

Samia Shabbir

Business Administration Apprentice

I completed my secondary education and A-Levels in Manchester, and was only able to complete the first year of an engineering degree…life had other plans for me! I have always enjoyed working with children so started off volunteering at my daughter’s primary school, which then helped me secure a permanent role as a Teaching Assistant. I worked in various schools with a wide range of children from different backgrounds, which was a satisfying and rewarding experience. I followed up by undertaking additional courses to develop me in this field.

After working in schools for over 5 years, I wanted to explore other opportunities and push myself out of my comfort zone. Business Administrator apprenticeship with Training Trust was a good chance to start from the beginning to work in an office environment and learn new skills/qualifications.