Blog 2- Roy Cavanagh

Thursday 30th January 2020

Blog 2- Roy Cavanagh- Training and Education Executive at Seddon's Construction Ltd 

On the morning of 30th of January, I attended a seminar that had the guest speaker of Roy Cavanagh, Salford born and breaded and a massive Manchester United fan. He was proud of mancunian roots and attending a grammar high school. He went down memory lane, giving us an insight of what Manchester and Salford were like before the industrial revolution took place. He described life as a teenager, living in small terrace houses with one shared bath room with the whole street at one point! You could tell with the way he spoke, with emotion, that he was a man with gratitude and grateful for who easy modern life has become. 

Roy’s first job at the age of 15, was delivering letters for the Co-operative Wholesale society for a few years, and then got promoted into the payroll department. Once he stuck out this job for a few years, he started to get cold feet, and he realised at such a young age, is this what he was going to do for the rest of his life? This evaluating the life moment led Roy into journalism. He started writing for the Manchester united football club, talking about the players and writing biography, that then went on to get published. Roy proudly stated that he has 25 sport-based books established worldwide.  

Roy was awarded an MBE in 2009 for his continuous commitment to the young apprentices he helps out for many years. He is also the executive in the education and training department, and the chair of the apprentice campions group for the Salford City College. He emphasised on the importance of social media enhancing job opportunities, and encouraged us all to sign up to LinkedIn. Steve Rossington (module leader) then stated that having a LinkedIn profile was part of our assessment for this module. Roy then asked us all if we knew what we wanted to do after finishing our degrees in the summer, and as expected at least 80% of us all said no. He then went on to explain how he supports apprenticeship opportunities for school leavers and how the industry work closely with the new team members. The construction company that he presently works for, has a good relationship was schools and colleges to help guide the next generation.

  

Roy was a great character to meet and listen to. He wasn’t afraid to talk his mind and most of his views in life were similar to mine. With such a big generation gap between us, that is something amazing to be able to achieve. He ended the seminar with one life lesson to take away with us. He explained how he followed the four A’s in his life to be where he is today! 

• Attendance 
• Attitude 
• Ability 
• Ambition 

He justified the reasoning be hide all four A’s and what to prioritise in life. For example, attendance is something you should respect and follow no matter what the emergency. Goes to show the commitment level Roy would give to his working life and being highly educated isn’t key to be successful.