Guy Nokes - Regional Director (North East)
Guy Nokes is Regional Director (North East) for The Scarman Trust - a national charity committed to helping citizens bring about positive change in their community by giving practical advice and funding for remarkable schemes that will influence others in their area.
Although this is Guy's first job in the voluntary sector, his experience shows how work-based training can open new doors for you and allow you to move from one sector to another throughout your career.
After leaving university with a degree in Town & Country Planning, Guy spent the next 6 years working for Durham County Council in the Economic Development Unit. During this time he also studied for a masters degree in Business Administration and gained a lot of experience in European Funding, including ESF and ERDF which he believes helped him move into a new role as Area Manager for The Shaw Trust, a national charity assisting disabled and disadvantaged people into employment.
At The Shaw Trust, Guy managed a large team of 37 people and was responsible for overseeing the budget for the whole of the region. To help him in his role he undertook a variety of different training courses including disability awareness, achievement in excellence and developing excellence and in one year he was also responsible for developing the trust?s IS09002 Quality Assurance system.
After 7 years with the company, Guy left Shaw to join The Scarman Trust because the job sounded interesting and challenging to him and he finds it rewarding to help people who haven't had the opportunities he has.
A typical day at work involves keeping on top of all his emails and letters, attending meetings about project development or funding opportunities, telephone conversations with outreach staff or meetings to discuss their project work, research of policy developments and national programs, contract work and performance management to determine how well things are going.
When asked his views on training Guy says "Training is a good idea, but it should be relevant to people's needs, with ongoing support from senior management and refresher courses to ensure new knowledge and skills are retained."
Throughout his career, Guy says he has tended to follow whatever interests him without any definite plan and is always willing to challenge himself to step outside of his comfort zone. He says that the ethos and attitude of people in the sector is positive and enthusiastic and so his advice to anyone interested in a job like his is to be open-minded and do the training that interests you and could benefit your career adding 'How hard can it be'.
