Assistant Manager Review

My role as assistant manager is to manage the business which is a pub on the West Road area in Newcastle, and involves team management and leadership, financial controls, regulation and legal compliance, project planning and customer relations management. I am also responsible for ensuring the business is always run professionally.

I have learnt some new project management skills, which have helped me to plan several projects including charity events, pub quizzes, live music and karaoke nights. I have also been able to increase my knowledge surrounding team management and also time management and prioritisation of tasks that need completing day to day.

I enjoyed the program as it allowed me to learn more about the profession I am already in and improve my skills so that I can do a better job. I also have been able to go to workshops that have broadened my knowledge and helped me ask questions of myself that would not normally occur.

The programme is well structured, although it did take me a while to get to grips with their portal system. Once I worked it out and worked out how the mark scheme and portfolio of evidence was graded I was much more capable and well equipped to progress and succeed.

I received all the support I needed to complete the course. My general manager and business development manager along with the head chef were generous with their time and answered any and all questions put to them. I was also helped a lot by my lifetime teacher who I could email at any stage during the course.

Lifetime were very good in their training modules and monthly courses (the ones that weren't cancelled by COVID anyway!). My Lifetime trainer was also excellent and was able to answer all my questions quickly, efficiently and knowledgably which made producing my portfolio of evidence significantly easier as well as improving my professional capacity at work.

My new qualification helped me by making me ask questions of myself that I would never normally ask, thus giving me more scope to improve. If I had never asked those questions of myself, then I would never have been able to improve because I would not have known what I was missing.

There are occasionally work nights out and parties, and we also socialise after work or during our days off. Some staff have hobbies that coincide such as video games or football and so meet to do that outside of work. There is a strong bond within our team which is build through workplace conversations and jokes.

Yes

They have provided me with an education for free which is more than I can say for some of my friends who have gone through the education system. I have also met some amazing people throughout the business and had some great experiences including being able to go to the Houses of Parliament.

I would advise people to work hard and have a strong work ethic. I would also make sure that they knew what they wanted from the job before they applied so that they know what direction to aim for in their career, whether they want to be kitchen focused, front of house or if they want to get into management.