Hollie joins high-flying alumni list

The regional chair of the Federation of Small Businesses in the West Midlands is the latest high-flyer to be added to Telford College’s glittering list of alumni.

Hollie Whittles, director of Purple Frog Systems and a popular TEDx speaker, graduated with a CIPD Level 5 Diploma in Human Resource Management through an apprenticeship with Telford College.

“I wanted to gain a specialist diploma to help with my job, and even though I already have a BA (hons) degree in Business Studies, you can do an apprenticeship at any age,” she said. “Apprenticeships are great for career progression. No one knows everything, so getting to share knowledge and learn from other people was brilliant.

“Having a certified CIPD qualification was a big incentive to complete this apprenticeship. It’s something I should have done 10-20 years ago. I wanted to do it to validate what I already knew.”

Hollie said the enrolment process with Telford College was very easy – and her company has continued its links with the college through other apprenticeship schemes.

“Being able to do an apprenticeship in my own business for the qualification was so convenient; we received brilliant support to help us implement this. My Telford College tutor, Anne Dollaghan, got everybody into the swing of things as we had our lessons via Teams. After we all got used to the environment, it was as if we were in the same room.

“I really enjoyed learning specialist knowledge and completing the research and readings. It was really fun getting to write an essay again!”

Hollie joins a wide-ranging collection of success stories on the Telford College alumni list, including multi-millionaire business people, sports stars, musicians, authors, and international diplomats.

For more information about Telford College’s alumni, see www.telfordcollege.ac.uk/alumni.

Pictured: Hollie Whittles at the higher education graduation ceremony with Telford College principal and chief executive Graham Guest