Complete!: Information and Leadership Management Level 3

This year I feel like I've done more than my fair share of studying. At the beginning of 2010 I hadn't done any studying at all for a while, so I was happy to take on some new challenges. But at the start of this year I was working pretty hard towards my Chartership, and it was taking up a fair amount of time. I was very pleased to hear that I had passed at the beginning of September, especially as it was my first submission.

But by then I had already started on the next challenge... at the beginning of May I started working towards my Level 3 Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) introductory award in effective management. The course appealed because it covered change management, solving problems and making decisions and time management - all things I had mentioned in my performance review as struggling with a little over the past year (in fairness, I don't think I'm that bad at dealing with change or managing my time - but last year was very, very busy and I had three line managers in the course of nine months. That's almost too much change if you ask me).

By the time I was having to write my second essay in three months, the course was appealing a bit less! But the training days were fun, there were a lot of insights amongst the group, and I did learn a lot. Writing the essays really did help make the theory seem truly applicable to my job, as the way the course is set up you get to write the essays about something relevant to your work. But it's still hard work!

Well, I've just submitted my final essay on time management, and am just waiting to hear the results. So far my marks have been pretty good, but they all need to be confirmed by an external examiner before I can relax. Other than that, I'm going to stop studying and enjoy the next couple of months - until something else interesting-sounding (and hopefully useful) comes along that I'm stupid enough to ask to get involved in...