Our new Learning and Development Manager at George Leslie, Katie Walker, has spent the past 11 years working in the industry of civil engineering. She began her career as a receptionist in an estate agent and quickly progressed to sales negotiator.  Katie then moved into the financial services industry.

Katie’s first role in the civil engineering world was at Barhale as a temporary office manager and three weeks later she had secured the position as permanent. Like her previous role, she slowly started building up responsibilities across all departments – including supporting the Senior Management Team, site teams, commercial team, training, facilities management and community benefits.

Here, Katie also worked with a Glasgow charity providing work placements to refugees, asylum seekers, migrants and for anyone for whom English was a second language “It was hugely rewarding to see the participants build in confidence and even more so when they secured permanent employment.”

Fast forward to today and we are lucky enough to have Katie working with us at George Leslie.

She said: “I knew George Leslie were a good company to work for. I had heard from several people that they are very good to their staff. Now I’m here, I can confirm the culture has a lovely warmth to it. The people are great, and everyone has been very welcoming, I couldn’t ask for more.”

The position of Learning and Development Manager is a new one that merges the works of the HR Department with the SHEW department by working to integrate training into a software system available to all staff at George Leslie.

“I will be working in schools across Scotland to bring young people into the industry through apprenticeships available here at George Leslie. Whether it be through the Tigers Modern Apprenticeship or the Graduate Apprenticeship available through our partners at UWS.”

Katie is the perfect person for this role, she is understanding and is keen to help anyone from any background into the civil engineering industry. George Leslie is working in partnership with Scottish Water to fill the skills gap of water and engineering and steer people into employment in this area.

When asked what she is most looking forward to about her new role, Katie said:

“I’m looking forward to meeting new people from all walks of life, listening to their stories, and encouraging and motivating them to learn.”