Last year, for International Women’s Day the team at TrilbyTV celebrated the inspirational ways women in education and technology are making an impact in the industry. This year, we want to continue to explore the different ways some of our customers got into their chosen field and the innovative ways they have made a difference by hearing their education and tech stories.
The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is Inspire Inclusion.
“When we inspire others to understand and value women’s inclusion, we forge a better world. And when women themselves are inspired to be included, there’s a sense of belonging, relevance and empowerment.”
International Women’s Day Spotlights
We wanted to give a spotlight to a few of our customers and delve deeper into their career journeys whilst highlighting the fantastic work they have achieved. We recently caught up with Cheryl Cain, Marketing and Communications Manager for United Learning’s Salford Cluster, to find out how she began her career,
“I started my career as a marketer unintentionally over 25 years ago. When I left school, I had wanted to be an English teacher, but life had taken me on another journey and I found myself in a customer service role which I hated! By chance, I got a job in direct marketing at a busy, lively telemarketing agency. I started quite firmly at the bottom of the ladder as an account administrator making tea for clients and endlessly collating results and reports on direct marketing analytics. As a result, I became very results-focused and learned how to project manage campaigns from an operational perspective.”
“Direct marketing is a very pragmatic, tangible form of marketing and I think that has stayed with me throughout my career. I worked with a wide range of clients from both Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer environments honing my skills in CRM, database marketing, outbound lead generation as well as managing contact centres on behalf ofcompanies and planning tactical telemarketing campaigns for organisations such as the Royal Navy and NSPCC.”
“However, my real passion was for marketing strategy. The tactical campaigns that I managed were just one small jigsaw piece in the marketing puzzle. I always felt I was missing the bigger picture so embarked upon an exciting journey studying with The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM). Over the next three years, I worked hard at another marketing agency and was promoted to Account Executive and then Strategic Planning Manager. In the evenings and weekends, I studied! My love of strategic planning grew, and I graduated with a CIM Postgraduate Diploma after winning two awards for CIM Student of the Year.”
“Over the next few years, my career led me to work on pan-European web development projects, exhibition management, and digital marketing campaigns. When I became pregnant with my son, I decided it was time to take the plunge and go it alone. During my maternity leave, I set up my own business and began working with small to medium-sized businesses from retail, legal, and hospitality sectors developing their strategic marketing plans. It was through networking for business contacts that I started working in the education sector for a small multi-academy trust.”
“I began working with schools to support their admissions marketing and absolutely loved it! Working in partnership with the Principals, senior leaders, and their transition teams I helped to develop an integrated marketing and communications plan to drive up applications and ultimately first choices. It was really satisfying to work with so many passionate, driven people who were united in bettering children’s life chances. Working in education, gave me a real sense of purpose which I hadn’t felt when working in other Sectors.”
“In 2023, I moved to United Learning, the largest multi-academy trust in the UK, working for the Salford Cluster, a group of four secondary schools, as the Cluster Marketing and Communications Manager. Initially, when I started in the role, I needed to build a team, and now I have a young, talented team of marketers who help me deliver each school’s strategic marketing plan. Ultimately, we want to be the first choice for staff, parents and students
and as a team, we work hard to support the schools with all their internal and external communications across socials, websites, events and publications as well as internally through the TrilbyTV system.”
Five considerations for digital signage
Download free PDF“Our schools are always striving to be the best and offer the most outstanding educational experience to the children that they serve. This means that the job is fast-paced and often demanding as we develop new campaigns and communications to share all the amazing things that the staff and students do, no day is ever the same! I feel really lucky to be working with our young people and such a dedicated team of staff.”
“I’m always learning and United Learning has a great marketing network and a central marketing team dedicated to providing brilliant support and CPD, something that is quite unique in the education sector. It’s also an inclusive environment. I feel there are many opportunities for women of all ages to learn and develop their careers at United Learning which is fitting as we celebrate International Women’s Day. Sara Hickey, who is pictured with me in the photo above, is following in my footsteps by studying with The Chartered Institute of Marketing too! I’m 53 this year, and I still feel I have as many opportunities to learn, grow and progress as I did when I was in my twenties just starting out.”
A more inclusive world for women
We also spoke to Claire Jones, Headteacher at Eccleston Primary School in Chorley, to hear her education and technology journey,
“From being a young child, I wanted to be a teacher. After spending years lining my toys (and sisters) up to teach them, in my final years at high school, I was told I wasn’t ‘clever enough’ to be a teacher and was advised to ‘go to art college’ as I was ‘good at art’. So off I went for 5 years to study A-level art history and then graphic design. I loved the tech side of design but still had a yearning to be a teacher.”
“As I grew older, I grew in resilience and if someone told me I couldn’t do something I loved to prove them wrong. And so, when my daughter was born, I returned to night school, and on my daughter’s first day at school I started University to gain my QTS with BA (Hons) in History, which I gained a 2:1 for.”
“I was fortunate to work in a school with a Headteacher who shared my love for the impact of technology, where we were preparing our pupils for jobs that haven’t yet been invented and to solve problems that we do not know are problems yet. Now as a Headteacher, technology is strongly embedded in our school’s curriculum, it gives all of our pupils a voice, accessibility, creativity and a platform to share all of this. Always follow your dreams and never say never!”
It’s great to hear about the different career developments of our International Women’s Day spotlights, how they progressed to where they are, and how rewarding their jobs are. We celebrate the innovative use of technology and the pursuit of gender equality, ensuring future generations have the best opportunities to learn and thrive. We have loved highlighting the amazing stories of some of our customers and are excited to continue this journey of celebrating all the inspirational experiences you have to share!