Your Business March 2020 - 173

MARCH _ 2020

hen I was at school, I had myalgic encephalomyelitis, or ME,
which at the time was a misunderstood illness. Its eﬀects
are similar to glandular fever, but longer lasting, and it left
me feeling constantly fatigued and with recurring chest
infections. My school eventually decided I needed home tutoring and,
although I managed to gain the core GCSEs, I didn't stay on for sixth form.
After leaving school, I joined the police force. But in 2005, when I had
the opportunity to join the civil services at an administration grade, I became determined
to progress up the ladder. I realised that if I wanted a management career, I would
need a degree. Luckily, my employer was willing to sponsor me to take a leadership and
management degree with the Open University's Business School; I completed it in four years,
graduating with ﬁrst-class honours and receiving an International Student of the Year award.
It gave me a lot of conﬁdence and opened up opportunities - by the time I graduated, I had
moved into middle management. If I wanted to go further, it made sense to take an MBA. So
after a year focusing on my career, I enrolled with the OU again. Now in my third and ﬁnal
year, I have completed my exams and just have a few modules and a dissertation left to do.

Diversity of subjects and students

Studying with the OU is a rewarding experience. It's not just that the learning materials are of
a high quality - it's that the opportunity to study alongside students from other backgrounds
is invaluable. On a management programme, when you're working collaboratively with
people from the private, public and third sectors, you're able to pick up a lot of skills.
To get the most out of the course, I've had to work very hard. I'm married and have a
12-year-old daughter, but studying with the OU has enabled me to be ﬂexible. Some OU
students do their work at weekends, but I try not to study when my daughter's awake. This
means that one day I might do my studying quite late at night, and on another I might study
on the train to London, but that works perfectly. I couldn't get that in a brick-built university,
because I wouldn't be able to attend the sessions. With the OU, you have face-to-face and
online tutorials. If you're unable to attend, you can watch them later.
You do have to invest time, though. I work full-time and I probably do about 15 to 20
hours' study a week on top of that. Usually I study from 8pm to 11pm ﬁve nights a week, and
take Wednesday and Saturday nights oﬀ. If I need to squeeze in more time, I've got options.
My daughter takes some clubs, and sometimes I study while she's at those.
The skills you learn from the Open University - the ability to organise yourself, to keep
yourself motivated, to go home after work and then sit down for another three or four hours
of studies - change you as a person. There have been modules during which I've thought,
"I'm never going to do this." But they are also the modules when I've learned the most about
myself and have achieved some of my best results.

Studying with the OU has made
me far more conﬁdent with the
approaches I take within the
workplace, much more aware of
strategy and the wider picture
within organisations, and that
has been massively beneﬁcial.
One of the key things about the
OU MBA is that it takes a practicebased approach. Often, when you
learn skills you practise them in
the workplace and then critically
reﬂect on that. Residential schools
have been particularly useful,
because you spend a week together
in quite an intense environment.
I'm now, at 39, the head of
customer delivery support, which
means I'm on the corporate
leadership group for Companies

THE SKILLS YOU
LEARN CHANGE
YOU AS A PERSON
House. I oversee six diﬀerent
teams and they are all designed to
support the organisation through
change. Looking back over 10
years, it has been an incredible
journey. I've gone from managing
myself to managing a small
team to managing large areas.
Studying with the OU has been
incredibly life-changing. As well
as the beneﬁts to my career, it has
transformed me as a person.
This article was previously
published in the Guardian

For further information,
visit open.ac.uk

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Your Business March 2020

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