Career Heroes - Frances Weldon

Tell us more about you

I’m very passionate about science, teaching, and helping others. I enjoy music, singing, and gardening. I am conscientious and creative in my approach to tasks.

 

What kind of work do you do?

As a STEM Outreach Manager, my job is to support students in understanding the many careers available at Almac and to promote STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects as these can open up lots of opportunities to work in the pharmaceutical industry, as a school leaver, apprentice, undergraduate, or graduate.

I’m responsible for coordinating and delivering work experience programmes and Almac’s Pathway programmes at W5. I support primary and post-primary schools and FE colleges and universities. My days are very varied and there’s lots of opportunities to learn and be creative in the design and delivery of activities, like for the 4C UR Future LIVE events.

I’m either office-based, at home, at Almac, or in W5 and I’m sometimes out on the road visiting schools to deliver presentations and support careers events. I have a hybrid working arrangement, so I typically work in the office at Almac’s global headquarters in Craigavon one or two days a week, and work from home for the rest of the week. I also spend some time in W5 to prepare for our workshops and Pathway programme events.

My day could involve preparing presentations, designing activities and workshops, arranging work experience placements, visiting schools to give presentations, attending careers fairs, answering emails, attending meetings, and reviewing careers-related content for Almac’s careers website, leaflets, and social media channels.

I work both independently and as part of a team, but mostly as part of a team. I couldn’t do my job without the support of my colleagues who work in Marketing, HR, and across all of the different departments in Almac. I also need to work with external partners outside of Almac to deliver projects and programmes, including teachers, colleges, universities, government departments, and other organisations.

How did you become a STEM Outreach Manager?

I really enjoyed Chemistry and Biology at secondary school and decided that I wanted to pursue a scientific career, because science is like an international language that can really make a difference, for example, in areas such as health and the environment.

I did a degree in Analytical Science at Dublin City University, followed by a PhD in Chemistry. My Analytical Science degree gave me a good theoretical knowledge of all the techniques I used as an Analytical Chemist at Almac. A PhD isn’t required to be an Analytical Chemist, but it did give me additional specialist knowledge and valuable skills in problem-solving, working independently, communication, teamwork, and resilience.

Following my degree and PhD, I worked as a lecturer and then moved to Almac in 2001 to work in the Analytical Dept., where I worked my way up to the position of Analytical Manager.

In 2013 I made a career change due to family reasons and worked at Queen’s University as a Business Alliance Manager where I helped build partnerships between academics and industry by securing funding for research. However, I missed Almac and was delighted to return to the role of STEM Outreach Manager as it combined my passion for science and for helping people.

If you could do-over, What would you do differently?

I might not have done a PhD and instead gone straight into industry or into a teaching career. My first passion was for teaching, but I was put off by my Chemistry teacher who said there would be no jobs in teaching, which actually wasn’t the case by the time I graduated.