At Thornfields, we ensure our Trainers get personalised one-to-one coaching so they are fully onboard with what we’re trying to achieve through our market-leading ILM courses. We sat down with Thornfields ILM Associate Trainer Anita Hampson, who told us how she became a trainer, and how the process was for her.

My name is Anita Hampson, Thornfields Associate ILM Trainer, and since joining Thornfields as an Associate around two years ago, I have worked closely with Charan Sarai, (Training Delivery Manager North Thornfields, and ILM Centre Manager).

Charan has always been encouraging and supportive. As a manager she listens to concerns and offers sound advice, whilst still taking my opinions into account.

In Sept 2022 following a period of coaching, I became an ILM trainer. Charan made the coaching interactive and informative whilst ensuring that I fully understood the importance and integrity of the award. Charan encouraged me to take on cohorts and supported me in areas where I needed more confidence. The pace and content of the coaching ensured that the sessions I ultimately delivered met the high standards which she rightly expects of us, but allowed me to put my own stamp on the sessions so I was comfortable delivering them.  

Throughout the process, Charan was happy to offer as much support as I needed, whilst still allowing me to feel I was training independently.

As my cohorts, completed, Charan ensured I was given results as soon as available and arranged one-to-one reflective reviews. Charan always gives protected time for a thorough review of feedback along with my own reflective review. These are always followed up with an encouraging email resume of the meeting, ensuring any important coaching points are included.

Any issues I had with errant cohort learners or draft assignments were always addressed promptly, and where appropriate Charan was happy to become involved. One cohort had a learner who experienced considerable personal difficulty and Charan was happy to listen to my concerns, along with my suggestions and work with me sympathetically to ensure we could finish the award with the learner. Both the learner and myself were extremely grateful to Charan for this.

In March of this year, I lost my Mum quite suddenly. Charan was extremely supportive and worked closely with me to ensure my workload was managed at a pace which suited me but always ensured the needs of the learners were met in a timely way. I was extremely grateful for this support, as it helped me manage the work, particularly final marking for 2 cohorts, and ensured I did the learners hard work justice. 

During 2023 I have been fortunate to take on or finalise 6 cohorts for ILM3A - this has been challenging, but with Charan’s support and encouragement I have found the workload manageable and know I am offering high quality learning sessions and feedback.

The ILM standardisation sessions are well led and very informative, and we are led through peer review and sharing of good practice.

Charan is a very effective manager, who offers kindness and encouragement at all interactions. We know as Thornfields Associates that she is available when we need her support; but she’s also able to let us train independently whilst having a robust process in place for review and reflection.

I am grateful for her support, encouragement and knowledge!