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Work Experience with Dan Canavan, projects director, Project Management Training

Alexandra Coxon, Regeneration & Renewal, 7 November 2008

Dan Canavan, 31, is projects director at Project Management Training, a social enterprise that trains young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in North Staffordshire to help them find work.

What has been your most beneficial career experience to date? Developing our Homeworks project: a property maintenance scheme that assists elderly and disabled people. When it started, I was a 19-year-old with no experience. My dad, who founded Project Management Training, gave me the challenge of building the scheme up which meant learning how to manage trainees and their supervisors, as well as developing contracts. It was difficult but, with the backing of Stoke-on-Trent City Council, we now maintain more than 1,000 properties in the area.

What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given? My old line manager told me: "Kids aren't a problem, they have problems." It's absolutely true. Given clear instructions and support, young people can excel. They just need someone to believe in them and to understand their problems.

What's the best training you've had? Last year, I went back to the floor and worked as a supervisor again for a while. It re-educated me as to how physically and mentally demanding the job is and helped show me how the targets I was setting for my supervisors were sometimes unrealistic.

What book would you recommend? Clear Your Desk by Declan Treacy. I find it difficult to throw stuff away, but this book got me to chuck out a load of unnecessary paperwork and start again from scratch with a simple filing system. I need to read it again though, as I've lapsed a bit.

What do you wish you'd known when you started out? The power of delegation. You have to trust people to do their jobs, otherwise you'll never get your own tasks finished. I wasn't great at this at first, but I've got better with time.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

1996: Starts work for Project Management Training.

2000: Awarded a BA in business studies from Staffordshire University.

2000: Becomes projects manager at Project Management Training.

2008: Project Management Training is bought by Aspire Housing Group and Canavan is appointed as projects director.