October Round-Up

As it is nearly the end of the month, I wanted to take some time to look back on what October has taught me and reflect on some of the highlights.

There have been so many interesting conversations and events it was hard to pick just a few but here goes.

Personally, Zenna Hoyte and Zoe Hoyte 's presence in the office was a personal highlight! It was a real privilege to see their vision of Caribbean food and celebrate Zenna's business, Soca Shack!

I spent time researching the women who have influenced Black history and there are some incredible stories out there. One of the most interesting stories I came across was that of Mary Seacole – an inspirational woman who set up a treatment center during the Crimean War.

Click on the link to read more about her Read Mary’s Story - Mary Seacole Trust, Life, Work & Achievements of Mary Seacole

It has been eye-opening researching this topic, and interesting to see how much our staff knows about it. I was staggered by the statistic that 1 in 7 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. At Your World we have about 75 women in the business, to think that 1 in 7 of them would have this kind of diagnosis was chilling.

If you are worried or need information take a look at this user-friendly guide from Breast Cancer Now: Signs and symptoms of breast cancer | Breast Cancer Now

This could not have come at a better time, this month my Niece has been identified as someone who may have ADHD. My existing knowledge combined with my additional research and reading has helped me and my family to get a good understanding of how we can help her. One of the key factors that I have researched a lot is how to help someone with ADHD, making small changes like tone of voice, body language, and timing are really helpful to a person with ADHD.

More information is available from the ADHDAwarenessMonth 2023 website.

Researching this particular neurodiversity has had a huge impact on our training. I was aware of a lot of the things that can impact someone with Dyslexia, but the focus encouraged us to make time to review the training content section by section, and make adjustments. I am pleased to say that we didn’t have to make too many adjustments, but I am confident that the training content is even more user-friendly for those with Dyslexia now.

If you need any more information, follow this link What is dyslexia? - British Dyslexia Association (bdadyslexia.org.uk)

The campaign “Mental health is a universal human right” really got me thinking about how everyone’s mental health is different and how not everyone is privileged enough to have a support presence.

One conclusion that did become apparent from talking to people was that everyone has suffered at some point, be it at different degrees. The pandemic had a huge impact on everyone, but it got me thinking now that the pandemic is “over”, how are we dealing with the aftermath? Are we simply going back to sweeping mental health under the carpet?

It inspired me to start looking into how we can support our staff's mental health even more and to make sure that the topic doesn’t just get swept under the carpet.

If you need support or have questions, check out the information from the mental health foundation Mental Health Foundation | Good mental health for all

Our L&D trip to the World of Learning conference was a personal highlight. It really gave me and my deputy space to develop ideas, look at the trends, and create future plans. It was great to network with some incredibly inspirational and passionate people within the L&D industry! We are heading to the CIPD conference in November, so hopefully, we will generate even more ideas to contribute to our L&D 2024 strategy!

So that is my October's learning in a nutshell. I am excited to see what November brings!