Marlene
– Head of Delivery
My main responsibilities include overseeing the Training and Delivery functions at Making The Leap, for both our young adult and schools’ programmes. I’ve worked for the Charity since October 1999 and feel very passionate about social mobility – providing young people from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds with an opportunity to raise their aspirations and reach their full potential.
Aside from being an extremely proud mother of two, one of my biggest achievements is that I work for a charity that serves young people. By promoting a can-do-attitude, we help them to access opportunities that may not have been possible without our intervention, which for me is a tremendously rewarding experience as I feel that I’m playing a small part in making a huge difference.
I often reflect on the fact that, had I come across an organisation like Making The Leap in my early years that provides the relevant support, advice, encouragement and career specific guidance, how different my career choices would have been!
Some interesting facts about me:
As a child I was incredible shy, in fact painfully shy! As a result, my Grandparents wanted to encourage me to be more confident and less reserved, so, from the ages 4yrs-6yrs I attended Stage School in East Acton. Sadly, my encounter with Stage School was very short lived as eventually the school decided that due to my shyness and reluctance to perform, it wasn’t a good use for my Grandparent’s money. The irony is that I now have a role that requires me to talk for a living.