Littlefish’s in-house learning Academy offers a range of career-specific learning tracks, offering employees not only the chance to gain the latest industry-recognised accreditations, but also the chance increase their salaries and equip themselves to take advantage of the many opportunities that are created by strong and sustainable growth.
And on these lines, read Service Desk Engineer Simon White’s account below of how a tram-ride can be a journey of discovery…
“It sure beats listening to everyone’s ringtones going-off!” says Littlefish Academy-learner and Service Desk Engineer, Simon White.
Thirty minutes on the Toton-line tram to and from Littlefish’s Nottingham HQ is enough to charge-up Simon White’s learning day – that, and the journey home at night – roughly an hour a day. Enough for him to absorb the learning modules that interest him via the Academy portal. “I’ve got to travel, and in the morning, I’m feeling fresh, so it’s otherwise downtime I can make useful to me by learning something. And I’ve seen the scenery, so I know I’m not missing much!”
Simon is about to hit a big birthday, has a partner, a young child at home, and another on the way, so he doesn’t have much time at home for learning. “But it’s easy with my commute, I just bang on the headphones. If there’s something I want to go back to I can repeat, if the inspector shows up, I can press pause, and I can always jot notes down to go back to later.”
In Littlefish’s commitment to professional development, the company funds the learning and exam costs and LinkedIn learning is now available to all employees regardless of Academy entry. LinkedIn learning is a global, online learning platform, that can be accessed remotely or while on the move, anywhere, anytime, designed for in-depth instruction and just-in-time microlearning.
If you’d told Simon as a school-boy that he’d one day be an enthusiast for lifelong learning and continuous professional development, he’d have laughed. “I wasn’t that good at school, mainly as I wasn’t there much,’ he explains with a wry smile, ‘I just didn’t get on with the teaching. But with the Academy it’s accessible, it’s there, I jumped on it the first month I was here.” (Simon’s been with Littlefish for six months.)
“I think it keeps it fresh and makes me aware. It’s also so wide and varied what you can do. I often find I go on for something related to my specialism and end up having a look at something completely different, whether marketing-related or business more generally. I think that also helps with the customers – I know a bit more than I did six months ago about topics broadly related to my role.”
But it must be hard to get motivated some days, surely? “Well, that’s always there, excuses to not do it, but I tell my mates who ask how I find the time, that I keep thinking of the next promotion, and there’s always the opportunity to better yourself. It’s up to you.”
“Above all, with the salary incentives, I feel I’m being paid to learn. And the cash will come in useful with the new arrival. It’s a rare ‘Win-Win-Win’, for me, the company and the customer.”
“There’s this openness to Littlefish. Having worked in Service Desk roles for ten years or more, I know the difference. If you have a question here, you can quite easily cross the floor and ask another team for help over the other side of the room, and 9 times out of 10, they have – and will be willing to share – a really good answer with you. So I’d say to anyone who hasn’t yet given it a spin, “Get Involved” – you won’t regret it, and Littlefish is a good place to do it.”
If you’re interested in learning more about the range of vacancies currently available at Littlefish, visit our IT careers page.
About Littlefish
Littlefish is an award winning and rapidly growing Managed IT Services Provider. Through a focused growth plan, it has become an established and credible alternative to the ‘usual suspect’ large Multi £Billion Managed Service Providers and IT Outsourcers in the mid-market and enterprise.
Its purpose is to disrupt the conventional Managed IT Services models – where the usual suspects typically fail to perform – by delivering service solutions that are tailored to the precise needs of organisations and which are communicated in clear and straightforward language.
