Career Heroes - Trevor Hanna

Tell us more about you

I have two daughters, aged nine and 13, and it takes up much of my spare time keeping them entertained. My main passion is music. I play the piano and I’m currently taking guitar lessons. I also DJ in a local bar, which I always really enjoy.

What kind of work do you do?

As a Training Manager, my role is both office and production based. I work with the five individuals in the training team, with two staff doing office-based work and three staff working in the main production areas.

As a site training manager and my main duties include overseeing inductions for all new staff and making them feel welcome, sourcing new training courses as they’re needed and ensuring that all staff complete refresher training when required, and attending careers events and promoting Cranswick as an employer of choice.

I also help with delivering operational training in the various production departments, assist the health, safety, and environmental department when required, and attend school opening days to discuss the various career paths available in Cranswick with students.

How did you become a Training Manager?

I did not enjoy school. I very much felt like I just wanted to leave and earn money. I just wasn’t academically inclined.
I only did one GCSE and that was in music. When I started working in the meat industry, I went to Essential Skills classes and completed Maths, English, and IT qualifications. I also did a Level 4 qualification in Food Safety and completed a NEBOSH General Certificate in Health and Safety. I’m proud to have achieved those qualifications because they got me where I am today.

I worked as a Production Operative for 15 years in butchery and slaughtering. I then got promoted to Team Leader and worked solely in butchery, before being promoted to Supervisor over the boning hall.

I then applied for the role of Training Officer as I wanted to take more courses and further my career. I got the job and then was promoted to Training Manager, which is my current role and one I am proud of having attained.

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

I would definitely have studied harder at school if I could go back and do things differently and I would have gone on to make sure I got some A Levels.

If I hadn’t gone into the food industry, I would have loved to have been a music teacher - perhaps I could have done this if I had committed to studying harder at school in order to achieve A Levels in music and two other subjects.