Guest blog by Yorkshire Building Society's Dave Frith, a recent graduate of the BSA / Loughborough University part time Masters programme in Strategic Leadership. Dave gives us an insight into the value of the course, why he chose to do it and the difference it has made to his way of working.
 

I have been asked to write a little blog to describe my time working towards the BSA Level 7 Strategic Leadership programme, which includes the Masters at Loughborough University. I have thought long and hard before committing words to paper, because this represents a couple of firsts for me, writing a blog and keeping to a 500–600-word count, but hey I’ll give it a go. In fact, I guess that is my key message in some ways….’Give it a go’!

I chose to undertake this course primarily because I genuinely love to learn new things and have a long-standing commitment to this. I also strongly believe that what you learn within the course is incredibly valuable in its own right, but the connections you make with fellow students keep the learning going way beyond the end of the course and this programme has certainly not done anything to change that belief. I have had the privilege to study with the most amazingly generous, giving, and supportive people who are a credit to the Building Society sector and this has been built on great quality teaching, in a great environment from Loughborough.

The course itself has taught me so much, not only about business but about me and I encourage anyone taking this course in the future to throw themselves in and push themselves beyond the realms of their current role. I work in Risk and because of this course have engaged with people from across the business who I would never have crossed paths with during my day-to-day role. This has helped me build lasting relationships that I still rely on now. It has also given me exposure to senior stakeholders too. This has increased my understanding of the business beyond what I would have expected to get within my current role and has helped me support colleagues within my own team too.

It is genuinely hard to pinpoint what is the most valuable thing I have learned because of being on the course, because it has all been so valuable in my opinion. I also find it amazing how much of it I can recall and use during my interactions. A really important element for me though was the 360 feedback. I am a little bit of an introvert and perhaps an ‘over-thinker’ and this was so enlightening, helping me develop myself further from a deeper understanding of myself. As I have said before though, the people I have studied with have been exceptional and the mutual support has been simply out of this world. I genuinely could not have done as well as I did without them, they made learning fun. Therefore, to be voted for by them to win an award was truly humbling.

I can genuinely feel that my confidence has grown because of the whole experience and for that reason if I had the opportunity to do it all again, I would. I understand the significant commitment in terms of personal time a course such as this takes, but I would encourage anyone to give it a go, it is so worth it. However, you only get out what you put in, so push yourself hard and get involved in the lectures, but also give generously to your fellow students. They will support you more than you can ever know, especially when it feels like times are tough. So right back where I started……’Give it a go’. Trust me it is so worth it.
 

For more information:

You can find more details about the programme here. The closing deadline for applications to the next cohort is 31 July 2022.