| Date |
|---|
| 24th January 2025 |
Today, as we celebrate International Day of Education, we reflect on the incredible impact education has in shaping individuals, communities, and the future of our world. We asked our SUMS Group team why education is important. Here’s what they had to say…
Joel Arber, Chief Executive Officer, SUMS Group
Education opens doors, changes lives. It’s the ultimate enabler. If I look at my own journey, I can point to key elements of my education that have shaped not just my career, but the person I am today. If I look at the things that made the greatest impact, A-Level English taught me how to really read and A-Level History taught me how to really argue. Studying history at the University of Edinburgh was a fantastic grounding in the discipline required for independent learning and research – skills I come back to again and again. And a couple of pieces of CPD are things I put into practice on an almost daily basis: Olivier Mythodrama was humbling, turning me from a confident presenter into a more engaging and effective one, and Cornell University’s certificate in public sector leadership made me far more attuned to the motivations of my team, and ultimately a better leader. Working in the Higher Education sector is an absolute privilege: to be surrounded by people who share my passion for education and share my belief in its power to create fuller lives and better futures. Education is a constant – a lifelong commitment – and I see it as the most integral of the UN sustainable development goals, the key to unlocking the others.
David Becker, Executive Director, SUMS Global
My education has been the bedrock for so many positive things in my life. I met my best friends at primary school. I developed my love of wine and fine dining during college trips to France (before they raised the legal drinking age!) The languages I learned have helped me visit and engage with communities across the world, and when I’m sat waiting endlessly on platforms for a delayed train it’s poetry I learned at school that often runs through my head. I visit the RSC at least three times a year, with my love of Shakespeare initiated at secondary school by the most brilliant teacher who invested his time in me and helped me develop my own passion for learning as a continuum and not a one-off. Time away at university taught me resilience, determination and opened my eyes to hundreds of different perspectives and ways of seeing the world, instilling in me from an early age a respect for alternative viewpoints and a distrust in ‘black and white’ ways of seeing complex issues. My time at Warwick Business School gave me an enormous network of like-minded friends who I’m still in touch with to this day, often in a professional capacity as much as personal one. One of my friends from Warwick is now CEO of my own district authority, so if we have a problem with the bin collection we know how to escalate the issue! Another is a director at the County council. Fundamentally, I believe in education because of its vast capacity for good; the potential it has to broaden horizons, foster creativity and bring people together. Without it, my entire life would be different and it’s hard to see how it would be a good kind of different.
Izzy Mackenzie, Assistant Supplier Relationship Manager, SUPC
I was enthusiastic to complete CIPS Level 4 when presented with the opportunity through SUPC. I think it’s important to continue learning and challenging myself post-university and I know this qualification will support me in my job currently, and my future career in procurement.
Emma Staveley, Office Manager, SUMS Group
I am a believer in lifelong education – we are never too old to learn something new, which might benefit us or the people around us. I don’t believe education is always about books and computers either.
I spent some time in Niassa Province, in northern Mozambique, working as a volunteer during the late 1990s. I got there when they were starting to rebuild after a 15 year civil war.
I worked with a Spanish nun, Sister Carmen, and together we delivered small education programmes to various groups of women from a long abandoned schoolroom on the edge of the town of Lichinga.
These included sewing classes, using sewing machines donated by Oxfam, teaching them how to use these foot-pedalled machines to make clothing for their families, or to sell at the market. There was a programme for women who had babies – who often died as they were so extremely vulnerable to illness such as diarrhoea – and we taught the ladies some basic hygiene tricks, such as washing hands with soap, and giving the babies only boiled water – and almost immediately the survival rates started to improve.
These were mainly very young women and girls, who had never had the opportunity to receive any kind of formal education due to poverty and conflict. These types of educational programmes provided a foundation from which they could begin to support their families and keep their children alive.
There is nothing as fulfilling as sharing knowledge to benefit someone else, whatever the classroom looks like.
Aya Ferguson, Head of Consulting, SUMS Consulting
I’m studying for a MSc in Business Psychology at the moment – a chance to get back into formal education (nerve wracking!) to build knowledge and skills that really help in my job both as a leader, but also in advising clients. I was terrified of the Advanced Research Methods module, but got my highest mark in that! Clearly the adrenaline kept me going! I’m loving delving into areas that I’ve been interested in and worked with for decades, but now getting a chance to understand the research and evidence for different approaches and methodologies.
Clare Riley, Special Project Lead, SUPC
I was the first in my entire family (that I know of) to go onto higher education including sixth form college ever. I was then the first to go onto university and the impact was mind blowing – being able to mix with people from all backgrounds, classes etc. I understood things from a different perspective, its crucial for developing an understanding of people’s perspectives from differing viewpoints.
Mixing with different people and finding new experiences meant it opened my world view. Coming from a very working class background, my appetite or ambitions had been tempered but being surrounded by people who encourage learning and development made that sense of shame for wanting to learn and grow. What’s wrong with wanting to learn and grow? You can do it! It can help you escape limiting belief systems depending on background & culture.
My first job was only possible because I had a degree and meant I had a gateway into the type of opportunities previously my entire family had been locked out of. My previous buying career where I had the opportunity to source directly in factories in the Far East, Middle East and North West Europe was only possible because a degree was necessary. I met people from different cultures and realised you can find yourself feeling connected to people from supposedly foreign cultures. Net result – we are all just trying to get by in life! Most people are actually pretty decent and happy to help. It meant I knew how to challenge opinions and base opinions on critical thinking and find my own facts and develop my own opinions rather than absorb what I’d been told based on emotional responses.
Years later when I completed my Masters degree it gave me enough confidence and knowledge to pursue an agent and get a book deal and become a published author.
I love learning and being interested in things, once you develop a habit of curiosity it never leaves you – I’m never ever bored!
Being a published author has allowed me to have new experiences, presenting at festivals, book events, being asked to write features in publications, being interviewed on Sky News live when I won an award for my debut! Presenting on BBC’s Woman’s Hour! (prob peaked!) and being asked to judge the Writer’s & Artists Working Class Writer’s Prize 2024 was an honour and privilege.
What does education mean to you? Join the conversation on our LinkedIn!