"Achievement and pride" - read about Lisa's journey with MOL

As New Talent Development Specialist for National Grid, Lisa Marriott is passionate about supporting others in their development. So when it came to her own professional development, Lisa knew what she wanted from a provider and MOL was the perfect fit.

Lisa’s career journey has involved working within the careers service, local authority, healthcare, and within the construction and utilities industry, before joining National Grid six years ago. Throughout her career, Lisa has always focussed on working with young people and social mobility initiatives to develop people, something which she thoroughly enjoys.

After starting the journey towards CIPD by completing her Certificate in Personnel Practice, Lisa came to a point in her career when she made the decision to continue on her own personal development journey. “I did the research into what providers were out there and what they offered that would fit with my lifestyle and studying needs. Working full time, the flexibility of online learning and the access to the VLE that MOL offered was just what I was looking for.”

Lisa first completed the Advanced CIPD Professional Diploma Level 7 development units with MOL in 2006. After a break from her studies, the good experience she’d had with MOL meant when the time was right, she returned to MOL in 2013 to complete her Advanced CIPD Diploma Level 7 in Human Resource Development core units. Whilst in study mode, Lisa decided to continue and successfully completed her Master’s in Professional Practice in Strategic Human Resource Management and Development, achieving the Academic achievement award from MOL for her dissertation.

And she has nothing but praise for her tutors and the background team at MOL, who have supported her during her studies. “The first thing my tutor said to us when we started the MA was to make sure we picked a topic that we were interested in. This was sound advice indeed. I really enjoyed the opportunity to investigate and analyse a topic of interest in such detail, something which as a practitioner, you rarely get the time to do, and this proved vital in completing my dissertation. It’s not easy balancing your study, work and personal life. My personal world went completely on hold when doing the MA, but I knew it was for my long term gain, and afterwards, I felt such a sense of achievement and pride that it was definitely worth it.”

I felt such a sense of achievement and pride that it was definitely worth it

Gaining her MA has provided Lisa access to new opportunities. “Whilst studying for my MA, and since graduating, I have had the opportunity to present my dissertation findings at a Talent Forum at the Shard and was invited to present at the MOL tutor conference at Manchester as well as sharing findings with the business to support the development of a new strategy for the ‘Future of Learning’.

Working full time, the flexibility of online learning and the access to the VLE that MOL offered was just what I was looking for