A Bolton based insurance company founder has team up with her hometown university to open a new centre aimed at mentoring the next generation.
Jackie Hyde, founder and manager of Little Lever’s Stanmore Insurance, has already helped two mentor and develop two international students at the University of Bolton.
But she now plans to take this further with the Deane Road university set to open its new Leadership and Empowerment Centre, where she will sit on the advisory board.
Ms Hyde said: “I have been involved with the university for a number of years now.
“The real catalyst for the growth in our relationship came when myself and my marketing manager Melanie Smith, delivered a mentoring workshop with students to talk about the different sides of our business, explaining how insurance is not all technical work.”
The new centre will open towards the end of march with an international conference in May which will bring together academic and business leader.
Ms Hyde will be one of the key speakers.
She said: “It is important for businesses to understand how you can have a successful mixture of staff with different academic backgrounds, people who have come straight out of school, who want to go down the apprenticeship route, and university graduates, who think slightly different because they have had that experience.
“The University is producing some fantastic people.
“Recruitment is hard, it is so difficult to find talented people so we as a business, want to work closely with the University of Bolton to keep talent in the town.
“We are committed in our partnership with the University and would encourage businesses to talk to their universities and colleges.”
The two international students who Ms Hyde worked with, Imran Hamidipour, originally from Iran, and Akinyemi Oredein from Nigeria would certainly agree.
Both are now full times members of Stanmore Insurance’s brokerage team.
Data analyst Imran said: “There was one hour between classes and I decided to go to the session that Jackie was explaining how Stanmore had evolved over 60 years. That was it.
“I asked if I could have an opportunity to talk to her, and she decided to give me an opportunity to work part time for Stanmore.
“Now I am full time as a data administrator, Jackie is now my sponsor and what she has done for me is incredible.”
Akinyemi, who studied insurance and business administration before coming to Bolton to study international management, speak just as highly of the opportunity he has given.
He said: “When I saw there was a career development session by Stanmore Insurance, I could not miss it.
“I was able to tell Jackie that I had studied and worked in insurance.
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“I was called for an informal discussion and a week or so later Jackie called, asking if I wanted to come and work for Stanmore.
“When my studies ended, I started full-time in October last year.
“Jackie has given us both an opportunity that very few people would have done.
“No matter how good you think you are, no matter what experience you have, if there is no opportunity there, there is no way for you to showcase it.
“Thankfully, Iman and I have both been given that opportunity.”
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