Although based in Carlisle, Tony Lockey spends most of his time in various BSW mills helping to manage the learning and developing needs of the business. Tony is the Group Learning and Development Manager responsible for the training requirements of BSW’s 1,300 employees.
1. How long have you worked at BSW?
Five years now. My LinkedIn messenger highlighted this to me the other day and it has flown past.
2. Have you had any previous roles at BSW? If yes, can you explain what these were?
I started in 2013 by helping to set up the new BSW Customer Service Centre in Carlisle, then moved after a couple of years into the HR team as Training Manager. From this I then moved into my current role as Learning & Development Manager.
3. Can you give a brief overview of your current role?
My role is to manage the learning and development needs of the business for now and in the future. This includes making sure all our health and safety training is up to date, as well as the core skills that enable our employees in both BSW and Tilhill to do their jobs. The role also looks at helping people progress in the business by building succession plan training initiatives.
I also work closely with our apprentices and graduates to make sure their training covers everything they need to move forward. I run courses myself and also work with colleges, higher education establishments and training suppliers for a huge range of training needs that our business functions require.
4. What do you enjoy most about your job?
Our business and the world we live in changes day by day. I really love working with our people to get them the right training at the right time and in the right place. I also manage the training budgets so I need to make sure we get value for money. It is such an interesting job; there are annual and one-off training events to organise, build, run and report on. Every day is different as every day new and exciting training needs are required. It’s great to see employees progress and feel happier in their work as they learn new ideas, techniques and ways of doing things.
5. What has been your most memorable work moment to date?
There have been so many great times, but one area that I am passionate about is our apprenticeship and graduate programmes. One of the best events I attended recently was the Skills Development Scotland Awards where our business was nominated and came runner up in the best apprentice provider category. This was a category whereby hundreds of businesses had been nominated but through the hard work of all the apprentice line managers, the colleges and the apprentices themselves, we got up on the stage. It highlighted the great level of training and management taking place across the BSW Group, from interview to achievement of an apprenticeship.
6. What are your plans for the future?
There never feels like enough time in the day to do all the things I would like to do. But one key area I am working on now is to build on the success of our training to date and help set up more customised accredited courses for our industry, by working closely with colleges and our employees. We recently set up a brand new qualification in Saw Doctoring which is leading the way in the UK. This is done through our great relationships with training suppliers and our reputation for getting the best out of people. It also down to the hard work of our teams in getting these things off the ground.
7. In your spare time, what do you enjoy doing?
I love football; I still play a bit but you would not think so from looking at me.
8. What would people be surprised to know about you?
I worked in the Far East having spent six months in Hong Kong in my previous career with Royal Mail. I worked on new products, postcoded Hong Kong and initiated the scratch and sniff stamp.
9. Who is your hero and why are they?
Bill Shankly – a man who could get the best out of people, who built an amazing team and stayed true to his himself. I have recently been inspired by Josh Littlejohn who wants to build a utopia for the homeless.
10. If you had a superpower, what would it be and why?
I learnt to fly in my twenties and enjoyed the rush of being up in the air, so being able to fly would be a cool superpower.