Carol Stephenson is the School Business Manager (SBM) of a Primary School in Birmingham. Before Carol’s move to the Local Authority run Primary School, she worked for 16 years as a Bursar in an independent school.

Carol was looking for formal training courses for School Business Managers in order to be able to broaden her knowledge in some of the role’s many disciplines. Carol said; “Through my own online research to find a suitable qualification for an SBM, I actually came across information about the Serco Education School Business Professional Apprenticeship before the programme had launched.”

Having reviewed the course content Carol enrolled in 2018 and became part of one of the first cohorts of School Business Professional Apprentices. Carol’s employer was able to utilise the Apprenticeship Levy to fund the qualification. 

Having now successfully completed the Apprenticeship programme Carol reflects on experiences “I have been able to apply all of my learning in my day job. I found the marketing module very interesting as this was not something I had ever done before in previous roles. One of the things I have implemented as a result is the creation of a Facebook page for the school which is proving very useful particularly at this time when regular communication is so important.

I felt fully supported by both my coach and the course trainer. I would recommend the course to others, particularly as it can be funded by the Apprenticeship Levy. My advice would be to make sure you have the full support of the Head Teacher as you need to be able to commit 20% of your work time to completing your Apprenticeship work.”

Find out more about the Serco Education School Business Manager Apprenticeship.