At the helm of Learning Nexus, Kim is the glue that binds our talented studio team together. Not only that, but she’s got a depth of experience in the learning and development sector, and a true passion for helping creatives progress in their careers. We sat down with her to find out a little more about her role, and all that comes with it.
Can you talk us through your role as Head of Production, People and Culture at Learning Nexus?
I manage everything that Learning Nexus produces from a digital learning perspective. So I manage the team that create catalogue and bespoke courses, or any marketing imagery that goes out. I have the biggest team at Learning Nexus, and any designer or instructional designer that we have reports into me!
Can you explain the path that led you to this role?
I didn’t go to university.
I started my career as an apprentice at Gloucester City Council, where I did a Business Admin NVQ. I’m not very good at academic stuff, and I don’t like being told what to do, so university was never really a route that I wanted to go down. After I did my apprenticeship, and I went into a role in recruitment, before taking some admin roles and bouncing around for a couple of years!
After that I went into a position at Safran, where I was a Learning and Development administrator. I managed a half a million-pound budget and was responsible for delivering all of the training across the site. So that could be physical things like manual handling, digital learning, or soft skills – everything was my responsibility. From there, I started engaging with Learning Nexus to develop e-learning, so that’s how I became aware of the team here!
“I managed a half a million-pound budget and was responsible for delivering all of the training across the site”
We did a few bespoke projects that I worked on. My role slightly changed, and I went to a different company within Safran, where I deployed learning across the UK. I was the sole focus for all eight sites in the UK, and working out their training plans, and delivering it to them. So that kind of grew how I looked at digital learning and blended approaches, and then when I decided to leave, there was a role here!
I’ve had three promotions while I’ve been here. I came in as an instructional designer. I rewrote about 90 catalogue courses. That was the main thing I came in to do. My first 6 months was rewriting loads of catalogue courses, and then one of my previous colleagues took on more responsibility, so I took on some project management. Then I became a Studio Project Manager, before I became Head of Production, and now, Head of Production, People and Culture. So I’ve really progressed!
What does your role involve on a day-to-day basis?
Everything! I spend a lot of my time in meetings, and I’m definitely the face of the team when it comes to engaging with customers, and I have a lot of engagement with them via email, telephone, and over meetings. I manage the team and their daily workload, and all of the projects, so it’s an extremely varied day. I get involved in everything, especially business projects, and I’m really lucky that I get to work with everyone across the business.
What’s your favourite thing about working at Learning Nexus?
Definitely the team! I really like the dynamic and the culture that we have at Learning Nexus, and I think we all get on really well.
Can you explain some of the challenges that you face in your role?
I don’t have enough hours in the day to do everything that I would like to do – that’s my honest answer! I suppose other challenges for me are just making sure that my skills are up to date, and I understand learning and development, and the trends in that because that’s really important for me to understand.
Also, I have done graphic design previously, but I’m not a graphic designer, so understanding my team and the challenges that they face was quite a learning curve – so that can sometimes be a challenge.
What do you do to chill out and relax?
I either like just switching off and watching TV, like a murder drama or true crime, or Lego! It’s my passion, I like making Lego sets. It’s something where you just focus on finding the parts you need and then building it. I don’t need to use my brain – and it’s different to my day job. In my day job I’m not building, or physically doing anything, so it’s quite nice to have that!