Hear from Andy about his career change here at Bolton Council and what this opportunity meant to him.
I’ve been working for Bolton Council now for about eight years and joined as a Ranger within the Neighbourhood Services Division working in the local parks and green spaces. The role was very varied, covering practical conservation tasks, outdoor education and community engagement amongst others things. I loved the outdoors-y nature of the work and getting to deal with different groups of people.
I then changed role to Education Support Worker within the Achievement Cohesion & Integration team of Children’s Services. As you can imagine, this was quite a major change of direction for me. My new role finds me working in schools with children that are new to this country helping them to settle in and to learn English. Whilst this new role was a significant change, many of the skills I’d developed as a Ranger such as multitasking, engaging with hard to reach groups and dealing with the public proved to be transferable with a little bit of imagination! Most of training was on the job, shadowing other workers so I felt comfortable in taking time to develop my skills.
The new role is very varied and demanding but comes with its own rewards – it’s great to see the children grow and learn. There are some down sides – I miss being outside when the weather is good but on the plus side my feet have been much drier in winter!