First impressions – Bryan Aitken

I joined the Churchill team after being TUPE-ed from Sasse in May 2014. I’ve had so many opportunities to develop since then. I started as a cleaner and have since been promoted to supervisor, then area supervisor, and to my current role as deputy contract manager.

Working my way up the ladder has given me the opportunity to develop skills and gain confidence in meetings and as I worked with different clients. I have been really inspired both by the people I work with and the work we do. Through Churchill, I had the opportunity to work with the Coming Home Armed Forces Veteran Support project. We help veterans in the local community with projects such as cleaning, painting, gardening, and serving meals.

All of these reasons have driven me to develop as much as I can within Churchill and I have now started my apprenticeship course. I am working towards a Scottish Credit and Qualification Framework level seven qualification in management. The course covers many of the aspects of my current role but goes further to clarify concepts and offer frameworks.
I’ve been learning and developing personally and professionally right from my first day at Churchill. At the time, the team was working alongside builders and it could be frustrating to clean an area to a high standard only for the building process to create a mess, meaning we had to begin all over again the following day. I could see dips in moral from colleagues and worked hard to keep people motivated.

Moving up through the organisation, I have had invaluable advice over the years working under the guidance of Mark White, Louise Clark, Phil Matis, and Neil McKechnie among others. I also had the opportunity to cover for another account manager and learn about processes at other sites and with different clients.
The apprenticeship is teaching so much about both the technical aspect of my role and about working with and managing others. I can already see it as an invaluable tool for my career progression.