futures MARCH 2009
futures12 RETRAINING
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
The dawn of a new career
for Sellafield late-starter
Plenty of friends to help you get started
A
T the age of 47, Dawn Senior is the
embodiment of the saying that you
are never too old to learn. She has
just started a degree in business
management through the
University of Cumbria and � via her
position as soft services and health and
safety manager for Dalkia at Sellafield �
encourages colleagues to take a wide
range of educational courses.
Yet Dawn, of Mayfield North Lane,
Haverigg, near Millom, is the first to
admit that she couldn't wait to leave
school.
"I left Millom Comprehensive at 16
because it wasn't my thing. I just didn't
like it. Within two years I was married
and I had my son at 19," she said.
"After my marriage failed I brought
him up with the help of my parents, doing
all kinds of part-time jobs in pubs and
shops as well as cleaning, to make ends
meet."
When Dawn turned 30 she had no
qualifications and no prospects but bags
of determination.
"I got a full-time job as security officer
at Sellafield and then got my City &
Guilds qualification in security," she
added.
"Even though the hours were extremely
long, I absolutely loved my job and it was
a real confidence-booster for me."
It was also the start of a remarkable
career progression in which she used
night classes and in-house training to
make up for lost time gaining an armful
of qualifications whilst working for
several companies on the Sellafield site.
Some included a Level 7 executive
diploma in management, a Level 4 NVQ in
occupational health and safety practice, a
diploma in information technology and
NVQs in business administration and
customer care.
Dawn is a chartered member of the
Institution of Occupational Safety and
Health and also a member of the British
Institute of Facilities Management and
Chartered Management Institute.
Dawn said: "Once I got the buzz for
education and training there was no
looking back.
"I don't know where it comes from but I
love learning and looking back I wish I
had started when I was younger.
"But in the 1970s when I left school, and
really up until about 10-15 years ago, there
wasn't the educational opportunities
around here that there is now.
"Now, if you are motivated to study
something there are so many courses to
choose from and I work for a fantastic
company that supports me in everything I
want to do."
Her new degree course is delivered
part-time at Lakes College, Workington,
where Dawn sends many of the staff from
Dalkia for various training and
educational packages.
The company deliver technical facilities
services at the Sellafield site and it
encourages employees to boost their
qualifications.
"If I see colleagues eager to get on I
suggest all sorts of courses to them," she
says.
"If you are motivated to study then go
for it. I have tremendous support from my
boss and I like to pass on that support to
other people as well.
"It's thanks to education that I am
where I am today. I have a great job and a
great quality of life with lots to look
forward to.
"My next goal is the degree but I am
sure there will be something coming
along after that as well."
Janice Nichols, project officer for
Cumbria Higher Learning that promotes
progression from further education into
higher education in the county, said Dawn
as a "fantastic role model".
"Lots of high achievers in the world of
work are people who did not shine at
school but found their way in later life,"
she said. "The good news is that Cumbria
now has a great choice of educational
courses which can be taken up by anyone
and at any age."
How did you become a self-employed
business woman?
I followed a dream. I moved to Cumbria in
May 2002, and in September that year
joined the Rural Women's Network to
develop self-employment skills, enhance my
knowledge of what was being offered
locally and to start making contacts.
The support and networking was very
important in helping me plan my business
and launch it successfully in March 2006.
What is your business?
Woodrow Services. It offers businesses
administration and graphic design services.
We undertake day-to-day admin tasks, so
that business owners can concentrate on
their core business activity, rather than get
bogged down in all the paperwork. We
work with start-ups to multinationals. The
business has grown year on year and now
employs part-time staff too.
How did it come about that you were
appointed to the North West Women's
Enterprise Forum?
I was asked to be a Women's Enterprise
Ambassador about 18 months ago and I
enjoyed sharing my passion for networking
and women's business opportunities.
I didn't know I had been nominated to
join the NWWEF, and the first I knew about
it was when I received a call telling me I
had been elected, and was I interested in
taking up the role.
How did you feel? What is your role
within the NWWEF?
Amazed, excited and slightly intimidated.
My role is specifically to be a voice for
micro-businesses across the North West and
for women's businesses in Cumbria, and I
have found that I have a fantastic
opportunity to voice the views of smaller
and rural-based businesses, and for these
views to be heard, rather than drowned
out.
Cumbria also has a large percentage of
businesses in the micro and SME (small and
medium-sized enterprise) sector, who
together have a sizeable impact on the
local economy, so it is right that their views
are taken into account and listened to.
My role is also to encourage women of
all ages, from school children upwards, to
consider enterprise and to be there to help
them develop their ideas and businesses.
What is your role as a SPARK Women's
Enterprise Ambassador?
I oversee a growing group of Women's
Enterprise Ambassadors in the county. They
are involved in encouraging networking
between business women, sign-posting
women to help them get the right business
information, encouraging links between
business and educational organisations,
encouraging women's enterprise, collecting
information on business issues and to
publicise success stories that will help
provide role models for other women.
I have already been involved with Young
Enterprise and the Prince's Trust, as I
believe that raising awareness with young
people and schoolchildren is an important
aspect of the enterprise project �
considering self-employment was never a
lesson I was taught at school, and I wish I
had taken this path a lot sooner.
What would you say to local women
who are interested in starting their
own business? And what support is out
there for them?
Come along to visit one of the women's
network groups, you will learn from
women who are actually running their own
businesses already and make essential
contacts that will help develop your
business plan and provide you with support
when you start-up your business.
Woodrow Services circulates the Ripple
Effect newsletter, which has details of
business events, network meetings, courses,
useful info and business opportunities
throughout Cumbria � anyone wishing to
receive this and find out how they can start
should email hazel@woodrowservices.
co.uk. BusinessLink NW also provides a
support service throughout Cumbria, with
specialist brokers to advise and support you.
There are other organisations too, such
as A4E, the Chamber of Commerce, CREA
(Cumbria Rural Enterprise Agency), WCDA
(West Cumbria Development Agency).
DETERMINATION: Dawn Senior pictured outside the Sellafield Visitor Centre
FUTURES talks to HAZEL DUHY, the face of Cumbria's
businesswomen, recently invited by the North West
Development Agency to become a SPARK's Women's
Enterprise Ambassador supporting business women who
have started, in particular, small to medium-sized
businesses. Her reputation and determination saw her
elected onto the North West Women's Enterprise Forum.

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