The origins: Debbie Herring studied English Literature and Sociology at college before doing a 3-year placement with IBM. After being made redundant she wandered into a recruitment agency to register for work, was offered the opportunity to become a recruitment consultant and never left. Working her way up through the ranks, she remained at Randstad for 10+ years before being headhunted for a role at Basingstoke College to head up a new training centre, during this time she took her entry-level teaching qualifications and became an NVQ Assessor. A chance meeting with a former Voyager colleague while attending a CIM professional Train the Trainer Course led her to her current role as Training Manager at Ikiru People. That was more than 9 years ago, and during that time Debbie has trained our Professional and Commercial Products as well as training Infinity and has been lucky enough to watch the product grow and develop from early ideas to full development.

CURRENT RESPONSIBILITIES

Currently, Debbie is the Training Manager. Her typical day varies from

• Training clients on our products including Infinity & FileFinder
• Helping clients with training issues
• Heading up a team of outstanding product trainers
• Liaising with the product team to discuss client requirements
• Writing and reviewing documentation and training guides
• Delivering consultancy with clients, analysing their workflow and creating a process plan
• Bespoke training for clients with specific needs and requirements

She also does internal training, offering new starters to the business an insight into the world of recruitment and updating internal staff on new functionality for existing products.

THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT DEBBIE

In her spare time, Debbie spends most of her time outdoors. She lives on an arable farm and has 6 horses (including 2 ex-racehorses) that she rides out with friends and occasionally competes at Dressage or attends Retraining of Racehorses events. Her other passion is her rare breed of dogs. Debbie has 3 Chesapeake Bay Retrievers who she does demonstrations with and shows. Showing has been very successful having qualified 2 of her dogs for Crufts 4 years in a row, in 2018 she was also lucky enough to get 1st place Crufts Rosettes for both her veteran and young dog. Her dogs are an American breed, established around 1878 in Chesapeake Bay Virginia, weighing around 35-42kg’s they were bred for their love of water and stamina, so as you can imagine they need lots of exercise, so lots of walking in all weathers is required.

 

DEBBIE’S FAVOURITE THINGS

Some of Debbie’s favourite things are Sophie Kinsella Books, traditional Sunday Roast with the family and summer harvests on the farm.