At Altior, you’ll always get a personalised, 1-2-1 experience from our team. So here is your chance to get to know the Delegate Services team, your first point of contact with Altior a little better. Let’s get started…
Tell us a bit about who you are and what you do?
Jude: I’m Jude, I’m the Delegate Services Manager and what don’t I do *laughs*. I oversee the customer services, sales and marketing teams here and get involved in data management. I am also the Disability Support Officer, Health & Safety Manager and the General Office Manager.
Christina: I’m Christina and my role is Business Development, so I call clients that have either booked with us in the past or who currently have delegates with us and see if they’d like to book with us again and whether they have any requirements for other training courses that we can help with.
Toni: I’m Toni and I’m the Delegate Services Advisor. On a day to day basis, I deal with incoming email and telephone enquiries, along with sales and bookings. I also tend to work fairly closely with a few of the other wider teams.
Why did you decide to join Altior?
T: Joining Altior was actually my first real job. Fresh out of university, it took me three years to find a job and after consistently job hunting, alongside having volunteer jobs/ work placements, Altior was the first company to finally take a chance on me. I started off as the Business Development Assistant and from there to Business Development Executive to now Delegate Services Advisor. I really liked the atmosphere in the place when I joined – everyone was so nice and working in a small team is something that I preferred and still do.
C: Because they’re a reputable company and I thought the training aspect was very interesting
J: I moved to Wales in 2005 (I married a Welshman), leaving behind a great job in the Alumni Office at the UEA. I took a job in a company that sold fixings, fasteners and ironmongery doing sales, procurement and office management. It was a male dominated environment and although I really enjoyed my time there, it was tough to make new friends and I was drawn back to an office culture where I could not only nurture friendships, but also keep boosting my skills in a challenging but rewarding environment.
How do you think the needs of delegates have evolved?
C: I haven’t been here for a long time but since I have, we have introduced Live Online, so I think the need for convenient learning has increased.
J: I think it’s a more competitive market out there for trainee lawyers with not as many training contracts available as there once were and I get the impression that they are taking on more and more responsibility from an earlier point. I think most of us are now quite time poor with hectic social and working lives and trying to fit everything in means they need to be able, as Christina says, to find convenient study methods that fit in with their workloads. They also want greater accessibility to materials and information on their phones so things can be viewed on the move. Our LMS and the Live Online course delivery were definitely borne out of this need.
T: I agree there’s more work that’s asked of them these days and so they don’t have a chance to get their courses done as early as they’d like. It’s often the case where delegates have a limited amount of time to get everything completed, so we just try and help them as much as we can so it’s possible for them to get their course done within the time they have. It also helps that as we now have Live Online, they have the option of taking some modules at home/in the office, where they don’t need to travel as much but it still allows them to be very interactive.
What has been your stand out moment at Altior?
J: says they are ‘building futures one success story at a time’ and that message inspired me to apply to work here in the first place. Being able to make a difference to somebody, helping somebody finally qualify to do the career that they really want and have worked hard for is a rewarding thing. To get a call or email from a delegate saying they have passed their exam, are now qualified, got the job – it fills you with glee and all of those moments stand out.
C: For me, I would have to say achieving customer satisfaction.
T: Yes, customer satisfaction for sure, as well as winning a Wales Legal Award. Achieving an award like this is gratifying because you know you’ve made a difference in the legal industry and the fact that it was the award for Best Training Team of the Year made it even more special, because of how team focused we are.
What does success look like to you?
C: Achieving what you set out to do no matter how big or small the target is – doesn’t have to be necessary massive, success is basically down to the individual.
J: For me, success is setting out something you want to achieve as in individual and seeing it through to the end, no matter how small that challenge may be. Social media profiles often push the idea of what our aspirations should be to give us happier lives – climb a mountain, do 1000 moves in yoga every morning, travel the world – but I think it’s being honest about what makes us happy as individuals and working towards that.
T: Yes, and no matter how much time it takes, for example, you could have had a timeline that you’ve set, not necessarily stuck to it but still completed it, you just know that you’ve achieved it. It may have taken you longer than anticipated but knowing that you’ve achieved it means that you’ve been successful.
What motivates you?
C: In work, I would say responses from clients and working in a team.
J: It’s a weird answer but I think life, and what’s next – what new TV show, what new gig, what new place to visit. I guess the possibility of life and what’s out there.
T: I think something similar for me, just coming in thinking “I’ve got this to do and that to do” and knowing I’m working towards something.
What do you love most about what you do?
C: Learning something new everyday.
J: I’m a real admin person, I love my spreadsheets, love chatting to the delegates, just love the day job generally really but like I said before, knowing what you’ve done has made a difference to somebody else’s life is great.
T: I’m going to be really corny and say my team. I think being around people I genuinely like and just knowing that we all help each other out on a daily basis and knowing we can trust one another is something that is really gratifying.
J: Yeah without the team it wouldn’t be the great place it is.
Who inspires you?
C: My husband because he’s a great coach, great dad and does everything to make his family happy.
T: My Mam has always been a great inspiration to me. Growing up with a single parent and no siblings, it was like having a mother, a sister and a best friend all in one person and still is to this day. She’s always taught me to be an individual, to be myself and I’ve always had the best support from her. On a completely different scale, I’m also going to say Rogelio de la Vega.
J: For me, it is people that have principles and ethics and who make it their life’s mission to stand up for those principals. Juliet Gellatley who is the founder of the vegan charity VIVA! in Bristol who is tirelessly working to promote the vegan lifestyle with an emphasis on the plight of farmed animals is a great example of this. But Rogelio de la Vega is the best answer I’ve heard!!
Tell us something that we wouldn’t know about you?
C: Out of work, I have my own events company and recently started training in balloon art.
J: I have been a tarot reader for 25 years now. I know it sounds daft that a piece of cardboard with a picture on it can tell you about yourself, your situation, give advice and let you know what may be ahead .. But honestly it works!!
T: I lived in Berlin for two months as part of a work project, where I wrote travel guides about the city. It was my first trip abroad and a great chance for me to meet others on the project (who originated from countries all over the world), along with getting to see the sights of the city and gain some writing experience. Although I obviously reviewed some of the main tourist attractions, I’m not going to lie and say that I didn’t indulge in some of the amazing cake shops out there…
And finally, we hear the team are big TV fans. So tell us, what are your top 5 TV shows?
C: 8 out of ten cats do countdown, How to Get Away with Murder, Crime documentaries, Made in Chelsea and Blue Planet.
T: The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Stranger Things, Sons of Anarchy and Jane the Virgin.
J: The exact same as Toni! Mind you, I have to give an extra monumental shout out to Billions which is one of the most incredibly written and acted shows every conceived!