Sarah Crabbe

Qualifications: BSc (Hons) Primary Teaching with IT (QTS) – First Class | PCAP – Post Graduate Certificate in Academic Practice | PGCert Coaching and Mentoring | SFHEA – Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy | PhD - Science, Agriculture and Engineering

In the 1980s I worked as a computer operator for a company that designed and made vending machines. As a placement student, my role was supporting the designers as they developed the circuitry for inside the machines. There I learnt a lot about leadership styles and team work as well as the technical requirements of the job. After a further year I moved to a software house in Cambridge that developed the solid modeller, Romulus, which was cutting edge and became the core code within many solid modelling applications. As the system manager looking after a mainframe VAX I spent many evenings dragging Ethernet cable through ceiling spaces. It was the beginning of the change from mainframe to workstation and I oversaw the introduction of networked computing. The company was taken over by MacDonnell Douglas and the ensuing challenges taught me a lot about how to manage and lead change. The American way of doing things was very different from the way the Cambridge Academics had managed the business and I became involved in the Human Resources side developing and introducing a management structure and a range of policies to make the two businesses more compatible. After a career break to bring up my family I took a change of direction and retrained as a primary school teacher with IT as a specialism which led to a role in the University as an IT lecturer. As a person who is interested in helping the students become the best they can be, when the opportunity came to study Coaching and Mentoring as a Post Graduate Certificate I jumped at the chance and have found that the skills this introduced me to have enhanced my teaching as well as giving me opportunities to engage in coaching both within and outside of the University. My experience of being a student, lecturing and the coaching and mentoring skills have been useful as I take a pastoral role in the Business School supporting students when they hit bumps in the road, or need someone to talk through some decisions.