I enjoy the good things in life and I am prepared to work hard to gain them.
Lee, 40, is the Managing Director of ClarkeWood Consulting therefore he has been in the business since the very beginning. Lee specialises in Contract IT positions around the West Midlands.
What is your biggest professional achievement?
Taking the initial leap to set up my own business, in one of the worst economic climates, and giving it a real good bash
After 15 years of working in recruitment, Lee decided to make the bold move of opening his own business. Through Lee’s hard work, ClarkeWood Consulting has successfully grown and furthermore has been running for just under 3 years; an admirable accomplishment in these financial times. Working with Lee is always a pleasant and unique experience due to his friendly, sociable nature.
What is your biggest personal achievement?
My four wonderful children, all of which I adore.
When Lee isn’t working hard he is a big family man and is usually enjoying quality time with his kids. He has four lovely children aged from 2 - 12 so there is never a dull moment when they are around!
If he isn’t working hard or enjoying time with his family, he is still full of beans and loving life! He states his business icons are Richard Branson and Hugh Hefner – successful businessmen who still know how to have a lot of fun! Lee is the Grandmaster of Dad Dancing plus is always first on the dance floor; and doesn’t take himself too seriously! Already this year, for local charities, Lee has dressed up as a woman, completed a skydive and has been locked up in Worcester’s Town Centre wearing a convict jumpsuit. In his spare time he also enjoys Taekwondo, reading and watching films.
How would your colleagues describe you?
Lee has one of the strongest work ethics I have come across in a professional, let alone in a boss.
Leading from the front Lee always ensures that he maintains his work life balance in equal measure.
With a true innate passion and ability for what he does, Lee provides the team here at ClarkeWood with motivation and aspiration all rolled into one and manages to do so whilst maintaining a friendship with each one of us creating a fantastic work environment.
Describe yourself in a few words: Fiercely independent, ambitious, considerate and easy going.
Victoria, 26, has been working at ClarkeWood Consulting for just over 18 months. Victoria sources Open Source, Marketing, Business Analyst and Project Management staff mainly in Worcestershire and the West Midlands.
What is your biggest professional achievement? Setting up ClarkeWood's CSR strategy and helping to raise thousands for local causes over the last 12 months.
As Victoria said, she is a considerate person and this certainly shows in her charity efforts! She has arranged all of our charity events and is always thinking of new, fun and creative ways to make money for local causes. In her latest project, Victoria has used an existing bond with Dolphin Computer Access and a newly formed relationship with Sight Concern to encourage volunteers to help teach visually impaired people to use a computer.
Victoria also supports a charity in Guatemala called 'Education for the Children' (www.eftc.org.uk/) She is 'Godparent' to two children out there called Betty and Jorge who are both seven. She recently went out to visit them both in Guatemala!
What is your biggest personal achievement? Gaining my skippers and diving qualifications
When Victoria isn't hard at work or helping charities she enjoys diving and horse riding. (which is why she has been dubbed the 'posh' one at ClarkeWood!) Victoria also has a big interest in fine Red and White wine and food. Her favourite feasts are seafood - especially shellfish - as well as Cheese and preferred drinks are Tia Maria and Port. When eating out she enjoys the restaurants: Loves in Birmingham and The Jolly Frog in Leintwardine.
How would your colleagues describe you?
Well what can we say about the “Posh bird” in the office?
Victoria believes in the smart appearance, smart mind philosophy of working. She's a professional in dealing with people and treats everybody equal.
Victoria throws herself into everything she does with 100% vigour and as the Companies head of CSR, she is always leading from the front whether it is jumping out of aircraft or other various charity activities we do.
Victoria is a dedicated member of the team BUT she also does know how to party!
Here at ClarkeWood, we are very big on taking ownership of our CSR. The past few months have been really hectic with lots of different charity events! From inspiring talks to jumping out of an aeroplane, we really have done our bit for charities in need.
As a company we feel it is vitally important to support local charities making a tangible difference to our community. This year we have focused our efforts on two charities, St Richards Hospice and Sight Concern Worcestershire.
We'd like to share a few of our fund raising events, to show you how you can get involved. Plus the benefits that come with charity work.
January - June : St Richards Hospice
St Richards is a fantastic and worthy charity, which has a place in the hearts of local people. They offer care for ill people and support their families, offering them the best possible quality of life. Over the 6 months that we supported them, we attended multiple events such as; Ladies Day at the races, Cheltenham Gold Cup evening, we sponsored Part with a Pound day and also did a Skydive. ClarkeWood’s Victoria also spoke at a corporate event and over the 6 months raised over £9,000.
Part With a Pound Day
'Part with a Pound' day, held in March, offers the opportunity to dress up, dress down, dress wacky or simply donate a pound not to dress up! The day was a great chance to raise money for charity, while having fun and team building. Some of the ClarkeWood team got very comfortable in their new looks, as you can tell! The day raised Approx. £5000, which is a fantastic achievement!
Skydive
Recently, the team took to the skies at the Hinton Skydiving Centre in Oxfordshire and raised a fantastic £2,200! "We are all still reeling with excitement from the jump a few days after, it is truly an experience not to be missed and we all agree that it is most definitely the best thing you can do with your clothes on! The next challenge is to find something to top this!"
Other ways we got involved...
Victoria also recently spoke at an event arranged by St Richard’s, to local corporate supporters.She explained how we had got involved and how charity fundraising helps others while helping you. Getting involved with charity events seems like time and effort, but it is so worthwhile. It’s easy to get involved and it gets your company some column inches, getting your name out there locally. (As well as being great fun and improving team morale!!)
July - December : Sight Concern Worcestershire
After our incredible achievements with St Richards, we are now, supporting Sight Concern. Sight Concern helps around 2,500 people in the Worcestershire area who are blind or partially sighted across our county. A great cause which recently, got refused funding for a specialist children section - so they desperately need our help!
Although our support of Sight Concern has just begun, we’ve already taken part in some exciting events...
Jail N' Bail
The first event we took part in was 'Jail N Bail'. Several local business men were held in custody outside Worcester Guildhall, until they raised 'bail' of £500 each. Lee was detained for his crimes against consistently outrageous public displays of dad dancing. Lee managed to gain bail around 4pm after passing his target by £40!
Our support of Sight Concern has only just begun and we are sure there will be many more exciting opportunities to raise money for charity. We already have a few things in the pipeline, hopefully happening soon. Such as -
'Firewalk'
The Sight Concern 'Firewalk' is exactly what it sounds like - walking across fire! Our brave team will have their feet firmly on the ground after their skydiving challenge, yet they will be walking over burning hot coals!
Dolphin is a local pioneering company, based in Worcester, who offers computing solutions for blind or visually impaired people. They have developed a special system called GUIDE which allows visually impaired people to use a computer. What they do is fantastic, offering people the chance to be independent and have the experience that others take for granted.
We are currentlylooking to find IT job seekers, graduates and students who would be willing to give up their time and volunteer to teach and train visually impaired people how to utilise the GUIDE program.
We are raising the funds for 6 people to be put onto dolphins “train a trainer” courses where the individuals will learn how to use the software and learn how to train the users on it.
It will be an opportunity to get a free qualification and skill : making them more employable,
engaged with community and attractive to employers. It also means that sight concern can branch out around the Worcestershire area as part of their district development plan.
We will keep everyone updated on how these events progress.
Meanwhile, we hope you can see the benefits of taking control of your CSR.
Charity work is a fantastic thing to get involved in for many reasons:
Campaign. The campaign was run by the Worcester News, who more than doubled their target!
After successfully recruiting an admin apprentice two years ago, ClarkeWood Consulting decided to once again get involved with the scheme and recruited two new superb apprentices.
Ben Proctor –Sales, and Lauren Henley – Business Management and Administration.
ClarkeWood are strong advocates for companies becoming involved with apprenticeship schemes as well as encouraging young people to really consider their options and what an apprenticeship could mean for them.
With this is mind we have asked Lauren to interview Ben at the start of his journey, 3 months in as he settles and then again on completion of his 6 month, in the hope of gaining a real insight into what it’s like to be an apprentice.
To start off our series of apprentice blogs, we’d like to introduce you to Ben and Lauren by giving you an insight into what lead them to an apprenticeship and how they are initially finding it.
Lauren:In January, my year was planned and I knew exactly what I would be doing. Or so I thought. What is your background, and what were you doing 1 year ago?
Ben: I was just finishing my first year of studying Chemistry at the University of Glamorgan in Wales. During my time at university I worked part-time for a Students events company in Cardiff.
Lauren: A friend had just begun an Apprenticeship. I knew nothing about apprenticeships and wouldn’t have considered one. She loved it, and encouraged me to sign up.Did you have an opinion of Apprenticeships before you decided on one?
Ben: I had quite a good opinion actually. A few of my friends from high school had gone on to do apprenticeships and were really enjoying it; as well as earning good salaries!
Lauren:Being in full time education you seem to get filtered through School > College > University; feeling although it is the best and only option.How does learning on the job compare to being in full-time education and has it, so far, had a different impact on you?
Ben: Being in a working environment gives you more of a reason to get up each morning. Every Uni student can think of a time where they just really didn’t want to get up, be it for an 8:30 start or for the last lecture on a Friday!
Lauren:Now I’m starting to get into my apprenticeship, I’ve learnt that education isn’t always the answer. What is the most valuable thing you’ve learnt so far?
Ben:To be confident! If you are confident, people will believe in you and trust you. If you aren’t confident then it makes everything so much more difficult.
Lauren:My original plan was start a degree in Fashion Design.What are your goals for the future and how do you think your Apprenticeship has influenced that?
Ben: I’d love to get into the senior side of things, including management of my own team and patch... Time will tell how that works out!
Lauren:Finally, we both had similar situations which lead to us choosing an apprenticeship. What kind of person would you recommend an apprenticeship too?
Ben: I’d really recommend them to anyone who hasn’t completed a university course, or is looking for a complete change in career. There are so many different courses available, so there will be one suited for them.
Now that you’ve had an introduction to our new recruits we will follow them up in three months time to see how they are getting on.
During our interviews with both Lauren and Ben we hope to give you a firsthand insight into their experiences allowing you to access a viewpoint otherwise unavailable.
We hope to highlight how beneficial the apprenticeships schemes can be for companies of any size as well as rewarding and encourage you too to consider becoming involved!
