Melanie blazes a trail for women in leadership

A WARRINGTON woman is blazing a trail for women in leadership – and her story is being used to promote National Apprenticeship Week.
“Blaze a Trail” is the theme of the week which starts today (Monday) and aims to encourage people of all ages and backgrounds to choose an apprenticeship as a pathway to a great career.
Melanie Nicholson, from Warrington, started her career as a dental nursing apprentice at 18, by 25 she was a senior manager and now, at 31, she is a director.
She said: “I absolutely loved my apprenticeship from day one. My friends who had gone to college had the same knowledge and qualifications at the end of three years’ study, but they did not have the same hands-on experience of working in a surgical or theatre environment.
“In addition to all of this experience I was gaining, I was also being paid a salary.”
Melanie progressed from tutoring and assessing dental nurse apprentices to quality-assurance roles and then onto national management roles with large training providers. She was then promoted to director roles, heading up training and apprenticeships divisions within large corporate employers, most of which were in quite male-dominated sectors.
When in one management role early in her career, Melanie admits she did encounter sexism.
“I had a male colleague who was in a similar role once say to me: ‘You shouldn’t be on the same salary as me because you’re a woman.’
“I calmly pointed out to him that my performance and my team’s performance were continually higher than his, which meant that maybe I was better at the job than he was and I should probably be paid more regardless of whether I was a woman or not.”
The challenge she faced when she became a director for a large corporate with a national remit was compounded by the fact she was also a single mum, relying on her family and support network when her job frequently involved travel and overnight stays away from home.
“I asked myself why I can’t have it all. It was very difficult at times, trying to juggle being the best mum I could be while balancing my career and the expectations from both my team and my employer,” Melanie recalls. “I was the only woman in the senior team and regularly the only woman in Directors’ meetings. My male colleagues would regularly go to the pub after work to bond and talk shop and I would head off home to be with my son and relieve the childminder.
“Although at home with my son was where I wanted to be after work, it did make me feel slightly alienated from my peers. I was fortunate to have an extremely supportive Managing Director who taught me that success is earned and there is no such thing as shortcuts, leadership is not a person or position, it’s a relationship built on trust and respect that leads to a shared vision.”
Her message now, to people just starting out, is: “Don’t get up every morning just to do a job, get up to do something you really enjoy. Be yourself, believe in yourself and aspire to be the best you can be.”
For more information about apprenticeship opportunities, contact [email protected], telephone 01702 208270. To learn more about National Apprenticeship Week follow #NAW2019.