Why I became a JCI trainer...

I remember going to my first official JCI training course – JCI Presenter – and being completely blown away by the two trainers, Dan Lally (JCI Barnsley) and Adam Woodhall (JCI Leeds). They were so professional and the quality of the training was higher than I had received in the workplace! What really inspired me though was the way that the trainers supported, encouraged and challenged me and my fellow course mates – they really took us on a journey and by the end of the day, I knew that the experience had reshaped me in some way – as JCI often has a knack of doing!

A couple of years down the line, I completed another official course, JCI Trainer (not currently avail- able but under review) and this was the first step towards my goal of becoming a fully fledged JCI trainer. The course taught me about different styles of learning and how to construct training courses in the most effective way and again, the trainers who ran the course (Emma Eastwood and Adam Woodhall, both JCI Leeds), supported me every step of the way.

It wasn’t long before I was itching to get out and about to start delivering training...but what could I train? Why would anyone want to listen to me? So I thought back to those JCI trainers that had inspired me – what made them so special? For me, it was about connection. It was about being in a room with someone who is passionate about the topic, who could enthuse and energise the audience and who put people at ease in a safe and open learning environment. Understanding this helped me to identify areas that I could start to train in. I looked at where I had most experience and passion – communications, branding, CSR – all of these topics I knew well and I felt confident that I had something to share and that I could help people to build their skills in these areas.

I LOVED travelling to other chambers, meeting new people and running training sessions – it felt like such a brilliant way to support the organisation and of course, I was learning and developing myself as a trainer all the time! In 2012, I wanted to push myself a little harder, so I applied to be a trainer at the JCI European Academy, from which I graduated in 2010. I was accepted into the Outdoor Team and travelled to Sweden to take part in the Academy. This was another life-shaping experi- ence. The process was fantastic and all the trainers were well supported, given feedback all the time and everyone on the team improved their skills during their time there. I was ‘buddied’ up with a very experienced trainer from the Netherlands, Dennis Ament, who observed my training whilst I was there and gave me loads of great feedback in my debrief – he really enabled me to believe in myself as a trainer and accept that I had found something that I had a huge passion for.