Name: Georgie Butler    

Job Title: Communications and programmes executive at Aldridge Foundation

My position in a nutshell: The Aldridge Foundation is a charity that aims to give all young people an equal chance in life, regardless of their backgrounds, with programmes and projects that help young people develop employability and life skills. My job has two parts, the first is to create content for social media and I’m particularly focused on Instagram and Aldridge Connect (our alumni group on LinkedIn) at the moment, so that we can carry on supporting young people after they leave school. The second is programme management. When we introduce a programme into schools, I will be involved from the planning stage, all the way through to measuring impact at the end. It’s my job to ensure everything runs smoothly and teachers and students have all the information they need to get involved.

How I got the job… I had no idea what I wanted to do when I left college, I had studied art and design and, although I really enjoyed it, I wouldn’t say I was naturally talented, so didn’t feel that going to university was the best option for me*. I started applying for office jobs so that I could gain experience while figuring out what I wanted to do long term. I was offered a job as administrator at the Foundation – that was 10 years ago! Since then I’ve worked in a variety of roles here and just before my current role, I was PA to the chairman and chief executive – a big step up for me in terms of taking on more responsibility and building my self-confidence. I think I’ve been lucky, especially in such a small organisation to be able to work my way up in that way.

*In hindsight, I wish I had gone to university. It’s not just the qualification, there is something to be said about leaving home, gaining independence and meeting people from different walks of life – I feel I missed out on that opportunity so would definitely encourage people to go if you can!

My typical day… Starts at 8.30am with a big coffee and my inbox because I like to spend 30 minutes in the morning responding to emails and filing things away as soon as I can. Around 9.30am we have our team meeting and that’s a chance to go through key priorities for the day/week/month, make sure we are on top of everything. I’ll work through my to-do list for the rest of the day and log off around 4.30pm.

My most memorable moment… I have been involved in organising some amazing events – and been able to attend them too. Such as the Foundation’s fifth and tenth anniversary celebrations – they were very special events bringing together the wider Aldridge community including supporters, partners, school staff and students.

The worst part of my job… The office moves that I have been involved in organising – there’ve been three!

The best part of my job… Seeing the positive impact that our programmes have on the young people we support.

Key skills needed … The key skills needed in my role are being organised – making sure you can prioritise things and work to deadlines – working well as part of a team and having a good eye for detail. These are all skills that you’ll be developing at school and as you go on to further education.

What you can do now… Get familiar with as many social media platforms as you can, create content using tools like Canva, where you can play with different fonts and graphics to create professional social media posts. Secondly, try and get involved in planning an event through your school or a local community project – think about the tasks that need to be done in the lead up to and during the event to ensure it runs smoothly, make sure you are promoting it on social media and evaluate it afterwards, thinking about what worked well and what you might do differently next time.