About the Emerging Excellence award, how were you nominated? What did you know about the award?
LiLi: I didn’t know I was nominated! I got an email, I think 4 days before the event, inviting me to the award show and it was only until I won that I found out that Dave had nominated me.
Dave: I actually messaged LiLi the week before about the award ceremony, telling her it would be a good experience for her to attend. When she got the email from ABTT I was pretty sure she had actually won the award. We went down with a couple of other colleagues and Li, on the day, was the only one that didn’t know about the nomination. It was a fun little surprise!
What would you say were the main qualities that she has demonstrated through the apprenticeship that motivated the nomination?
D: I was really impressed with how she has grown in confidence, from being relatively shy to being quietly confident on her day to day work. There weren’t too many tasks that Li wouldn’t want to be involved with. From day one I wanted to know what she wanted to get out of the apprenticeship, and I have seen her growth achieving her goals while adapting to the complexity of working in theatre. It has been her problem-solving and on-stage knowledge that impressed me and provided an invaluable help by working on different departments and people, developing as a professional in the industry.
How do you feel that the apprenticeship programme has impacted your development?
L: On the first days I learned all the technicalities of my role by shadowing one of my colleagues. The on-hand experience gave me lots of confidence and knowledge which was really impactful to my development.
The apprenticeship allowed me to be involved in full scale shows and on different departments, helping me learn the specialised technical aspects of each department and a more rounded knowledge of the industry. Also, the off the job learning with Creative Alliance helped with my overall understanding of the industry and allowed me to understand the systems implemented on my place of work.
Louise, my Development Coach, was really supportive through the apprenticeship helping me to set goals to achieve at work which was a great way to know what to focus on. The Creative Alliance apprenticeship was really well structured and had a great flexibility that helped me balance my tasks both on and off the job.
D: Louise has been a very positive influence on her development through the apprenticeship. Working with her and Creative Alliance has been great in terms that the objectives were always there, the modules to complete are clear and the flexibility of the projects and modules felt like a really good way of working because it allowed Li to learn and work efficiently. Having one-to-ones with Louise and Li to set objectives was a great a way of supporting LiLi’s development within Curve and the different departments.
What does this award mean to the Theatre and to Dave as line manager?
D: I’m super proud of Li and that her talent and work have been recognised. I’m glad that the nomination we wrote was taken into account. To me, as her manager, this award gives me confidence that when you trust people to do their job and support them when needed has a positive impact on their development.
For Curve, this award shows that the facilities, type of shows we do and the opportunities we give to technician staff, go well with the apprenticeship scheme. If it means that Curve can become a centre of learning for want-to-be technicians, or in other departments, I think we have enough experience, resources and willingness to support them, and we look forward for the next apprenticeships opportunities.
What are your next steps with your new full-time role and this recognition you have received?
Li: Dave has always given me the opportunity to grow and develop within my position, so I’m very grateful and honoured that Dave and Georgia Thompson (Stage and Automation Technician) nominated me, and I’m very pleased that my efforts have been recognised. I’m really excited looking into the future and working at Curve, continuing to learn and grow in theatre which is a really nice place to work and learn!
