"At times I felt I was zooming around the career Scalextric track" Graham Skinner, Health and Safety Policy Manager for Offshore Energies UK

I’ve been in my current job role are Health and Safety Policy Manager for Offshore Energies UK for 18 months.  We are the UK trade association for offshore energy. It has been a significant change from my previous role as a specialist major hazard regulator in oil and gas. I have moved from a narrow technical role to a very broad general role, for example my policy area now covers aviation safety, security & resilience, and health.  Offshore Energies UK memberships extended beyond oil and gas into offshore wind, and the emerging technologies of carbon capture and storage and hydrogen. In addition, all staff have business development and member relations responsibilities on top of delivering commercial technical conferences.

My first 6 months involved establishing the extent of my remit, confirming my responsibilities, and mapping out the workstreams we support industry to deliver.  During this time my network naturally expanded exponentially.  I invested time in understanding the technical aspects of my new remit and focussed on delivery.  I took on an excellent health and safety advisor to the team and together we focussed on finding efficient ways of managing and delivering all of our workstreams.

As I began to understand the job role, and some of the challenges we face as a trade association, I began to reflect on my own personal development, the strengths I was bringing to the role and also areas for personal growth.  My first introduction to the Institute of Directors was via my line manager and I quickly found a supportive group of contacts in the local branch. I secured an external mentor who also suggested I look to the IoD as an organisation that I could develop myself through.

Offshore Energies UK is an incredible organisation to turbo charge my career, giving me exposure to some exceptional people and organisations.  They provide the opportunity deliver change across a whole industry. I am also aware that future success needs to be built on effective delivery today and consistent outcomes over the next few years here, in this role. My role is relatively high-profile and both success and failure are noticed across industry. At times I felt I was zooming around the career ‘Scalextric track’ and needed to be cautious not to flying off on a corner.   The IoD CPD and training I have engaged in has enabled me to have effective contributions to discussions about governance, liability, and strategy within my current role whilst also keeping an eye on the future. It’s helped provide some structure and control to my career development.

To build on those benefits I enrolled in the IoD Aspiring Director training course.  The course covers the IoD Director Competency Framework and provided practical exercises related to the type of challenges directors can face.  The course was really helpful for highlighting all the things I don’t yet know, and topics to add to my development plan.  Such as learning more about financial controls. The tutor, Charles Kingsmill, also helped me discover areas of strength the helped build my confidence. Prior to enrolling I was concerned that joining this course a few years before I hope to become a director would be too early.  I am pleased that I did and will now have many more relevant and specific questions to ask of mentors and new areas to build up strengths putting me in the strongest position possible for career growth in the future.