Reflections on a year of growth and connection

In Spring 2024, I left 25 years of permanent employment behind and took the leap into freelancing. It’s been a challenging but rewarding year, and with so many people helping me along the way, I wanted to say thankyou to them all, but also share how it’s gone.?

The education and learning technology sector felt more turbulent than ever this year, with little stability in sight. Up until 2020, I’d had three employers in 25 years. Since then it's been three employers in three years. Everyone I speak to talks of uncertainty in the job market, LinkedIn is full of #OpenToWork and even brave #DesperateToWork profile tags. Uncertain times, for sure. When my last role ended abruptly at Easter, I simply couldn’t face the thought of another soul-destroying phase of job applications and interviews. The desire for job security is always what had always held me back from freelancing, but with that now feeling like a myth, self employment felt like the clearest way forward.

Advice from ex-colleagues who had already made the leap was tremendously useful and reassuring, and there was one common thread to the conversations: trust your network. I’m not a natural networker, but I’ve worked alongside a huge number of colleagues over the decades, established a decent reputation, built up some solid expertise in the pretty niche sector of learning technology, and always tried to treat people right. So I took that so-called trust fall. The ‘big announcement’ on LinkedIn was scary as hell, but what followed was more than I could have wished for!

Mentoring at Charity Learning Consortium

One of the first people to pick up on my? announcement was Martin Baker, an old customer from my days at Epic in the early 2000s. Martin had originally hired my team to build a Moodle site for Charity Learning Consortium, and he invited me back into the fold to mentor the amazing Josh Willcock , CLC's Head of Technology. Mentoring certainly wasn’t on my list of services to offer, but it’s been fascinating to find out where others see value in my experience.?

When you’re the only technology manager in a small business, with a couple of developers reporting into you, various business stakeholders to manage and some major technology changes ahead of you, just having a sounding board can make a real difference. Someone to kick ideas around with and discuss approaches to problems, and who’s been through these things before. Meeting for just an hour every couple of weeks has been rewarding for me, and apparently useful for Josh! Having managed software teams and learning technology services for 20 years it makes total sense to help others on that journey, and I’m well up for doing more of this.

The Portal

Also on the back of that initial LinkedIn announcement, I was absolutely delighted when THREE ex-colleagues independently recommended me to a founder looking for some technology assistance in launching a new learning product. This became my first ‘proper’ project working with Sally Burns on The Portal, which I have loved working on and took up much of the Spring and Summer.?

I was in my element on this project - capturing product requirements, scoping out a solution and handling vendor selection. It was lovely to do this uninterrupted too, it quickly dawned on me what I’d lost over the years, that focus you lose when moving from individual contributor to manager, and I remember thinking to myself countless times while working on The Portal, that I was doing my most productive work in many, many years!

You can find out more about this project in my blog post: Case Study: The Portal - reimagining learning.

Beacon Changemakers

Just as the first phase of The Portal work was ending, two more old colleagues recommended me for a project with Beacon Changemakers. With roots in Kenya via founder Ajay Sood, the Beacon scholarship has helped many talented young East Africans into places at top international schools and UK universities. Alongside their studies, Beacon students take part in an extra-curricular, online youth leadership programme. This collaborative, social learning programme has been so successful in building the employability skills of these students that Ajay decided to spin it out as a product in its own right. The product is called ARLLS - All Round Leadership Learning System - and 100% of the profits go back to the Beacon charity. My role was to help launch ARLLS into the commercial learning market. My role on paper is Product Manager but it’s a lovely, roll-up-your-sleeves role in the rewarding environment of a social enterprise start-up.?

As with getting any new service off the ground, the early focus has been on the sales and marketing side - audience definition and segmentation, CRM setup, creating HTML email templates, outbound marketing, running sales demos, website content management, Moodle course configuration and managing trial cohorts. It's been rewarding and fun to work on. Having been through multiple new product and service launches at the likes of Epic, LEO, Kineo and Brightwave, it's always a buzz to take an idea and see it grow, gain traction, chase those first cohorts of learners. I’m really pleased that this project will continue well into 2025, the future looks bright for this learning programme and the social enterprise behind it.

The best bits

The best bits of the year - aside from the exciting projects, rediscovering my focus and managing to still pay the bills at home! - have been the human connections. Virtual coffees, online chats, real-life drinks, lunches and dinners, meetups in Brighton coworking spaces. Advice from colleagues past, present and future have all been absolutely invaluable and I'm so grateful for everyone's help.

Freelancing has been a leap of faith, but it also feels like a leap into freedom. I’ve loved the autonomy that I have, being able to relax with my kids after school, having the flexibility to decide to go for a bike ride if the sun comes out unexpectedly! It’s not without its challenges, and some uncertainty remains, but the professional growth and personal flexibility have made it more than worthwhile.?

But none of this would have been possible without the support, guidance, and encouragement of so many incredible people, way too many to mention by name here but please know that I truly appreciate you all! I'm going to switch off for a bit now, so have a great holiday season and I can't wait to see you in 2025!?