When I joined Midland Bank in 1976 inflation was running at
16.5%, and even before I started work I got a double-digit pay increase, and I
also received an increase - albeit a more modest one - for passing my A-levels.
Having A-levels also made me eligible for Day Release to study for my Institute
of Bankers (IOB) exams, and as it was often said that with an IOB qualification
one's promotion prospects would be improved, I decided to sign up for the
course. Except that my A-levels meant that I was exempt from part of the first
stage and would have to take a Conversion Course instead and the only local
college offering it - Redbridge College - ran it on Fridays, and the branch
accountant was not willing to let me be absent every Friday. Instead I ended up
at North East London Polytechnic in Barking taking a Higher National
Certificate in Business Studies (HNC), which I was assured would be accepted by
the IOB as equivalent to the Conversion Course.
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| North East London Polytechnic in Barking as was: it has subsequently been converted to housing. |
I passed the HNC but did not pursue the IOB exams; by the
time I was twenty I felt I had had enough of studying and resented the
Wednesday evening classes and having to miss nights out to do homework, so I
dropped out.
Fast forward to 2004 and I learned that HSBC ran - in
conjunction with the IFS School of Finance[1]
- a course which led to a Diploma in Business Analysis and Operations (DipBAO)
and since my job title was Business Analyst, it seemed an appropriate course to
study. The other members of my small team also expressed an interest, but in
the end it was only me that signed up. And I did so not because I thought that
gaining this qualification would enhance my career prospects - at the age of 46
and comfortable in my role I wasn't really looking for a drastic step up the
ladder - but because I thought it would be interesting and, after nearly thirty
years after undertaking any academic study, I wanted to know if I still had the
skills to learn a subject and pass exams.
The course was split into four modules: Managing People In
Organisations, Managing Information, Business Analysis, and Project Management.
The first two elements comprised distance learning, and to pass required
completing two assignments and taking a formal exam. The second two elements
required taking HSBC courses in the subjects and then producing an assignment.
The course textbook and other resources for Managing People
In Organisations arrived in the post, and one Saturday afternoon in the summer
of 2004 I sat down and started work. Other books were purchased - second hand
through Amazon - and I quickly realised that the amount of commitment required
was not insignificant. And when the football season started, Saturday
afternoons were not a practical time for study, so learning became a weekday
evening pursuit - not easy after a full day at work and having spent the early
evening cooking and doing other chores. By the time it came to start revising
for the exam - the first I had taken in three decades - it became obvious that
I could either get a full night's sleep or study, but not both. I would start
revising at about ten o'clock and go on till two or three the next morning,
fretting all the time that nothing seemed to be going in. What I found
remarkable was that while I was getting my few hours sleep, my mind would
somehow order my thoughts and lo and behold, come morning there was more that I
could recall than I would have thought possible when I went to bed. Of equal
concern as whether or not I could retrieve the necessary information in the
exam room, however was, could I write for three hours without getting writer's
cramp? Nowadays I rarely use a pen to write anything longer than a shopping
list, and even twelve years ago, I was using a keyboard much more than a biro,
so part of my exam practice was simply sitting down and writing for long
periods; it is harder than you imagine.
As it happens, the exam seemed to go quite well. Our course
tutor - whom we only actually met twice - was on the ball in predicting which
areas of the syllabus would be likely to come up (more so than the tutor for
the second module, Managing Information, whose advise I by and large ignored,
and was glad I did) but even so it was with some trepidation that I logged on to
the IFS website some time later to find out my result. To my surprise and
delight, I had not only passed, by I was awarded a Distinction. It was my best
result, as although I passed each of the other modules, it was not with such
good scores. In part I would put that down to my having no experience of
managing people, and I was therefore able to treat the subject as a purely
academic exercise, whereas with the others - Business Analysis in particular -
I had preconceptions and my own ideas that did not necessarily fit with the course
objectives.
The Business Analysis and Project Management courses took
place at the bank's offices in Hoyle Street, Sheffield and their training
centre at Bricket Wood in Hertfordshire (neither of which the bank occupies any
longer). The courses were hard work - at Bricket Wood we had to work evenings
and one weekend - but the effort paid off, because I passed.
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| HSBC's former offices in Hoyle Street, Sheffield. Photo: Terry Robinson |
My HSBC colleagues who also received their diplomas were:
Heather Batson, Fakhra Brisby, Andy
Clark, Martin Cleary, Maria Coulson, Emma Frith,
Michael Griffin, Jo Haskins, Owen Hatton, Glynn Neale, Simon
Mitchell, Ross Neads
Julie Parsons, Cathy Patton, Jenny
Penn, Jeremy Ransom, Paul Richardson
In the picture above are (left to right) Jenny Penn, Fakhra Brisby and Mike Griffin. Unfortunately the name of my colleague standing immediately to my left escapes me.
And then I had to rent a gown and mortar board (not cheap!)so
that on Friday 16th March 2007, I could
go to Southwark Cathedral and receive my diploma - not the real thing, that arrived
some months later after some issue with printing the hologram on the actual
certificate - enabling me to add the letters DipBAO, after my name.
Technically, I can't use the letters since I am no longer a member of the IFS
(I declined their offer to pay an annual membership fee of over £100 for that
right, plus their magazine).
My qualification did not translate into any career
advancement, although the bank did give
me a decent bonus that year (not anywhere near monstrous sums that the press
love to pillory the profession for, of course). More than anything else after I
finished my studies, I was left with a gratifying sense of achievement, and I
would say to anyone who later in life and many years after they finished their
years of formal study, considers studying for any sort of qualification, go for
it - the lack of sleep is worth it.
[1] Formerly
the Chartered Institute of Bankers (CIB) and subsequently IFS) IFS is/was the
Institute of Financial Services.
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