Drop ten, turn and face Quilty’s Football Yarns 55 Australia - Opportunities aplenty

Drop ten, turn and face

Quilty’s Football Yarns 55

Australia - Opportunities aplenty

Growing up in Hackney and going to school in Bethnal Green, in the sixties and seventies was always interesting. If you are a basic optimist, you tend not to see adversity. So it was with me. I grew up near Vicky Park, went to a lovely Primary School in Lauriston Road and snagged a place at Parmiters Grammar in Approach Road near the Old Bethnal Green Chest Hospital. We moved from Swingfield House to Laxfield Court in 1966. It was part of the new Suffolk Estate in Pownall Road. Everyone was in a similar boat usually coming from older council flats or out of condemned houses in Shoreditch or Hoxton. We lived in an exotically named ‘maisonette’ up on the second floor. The flat had both an upstairs and downstairs. Class was undoubtedly an underlying element in London society but as an 11 or 12 year old, it wasn’t necessarily at the front of my mind. In later years Hackney gained the name ‘Dustbin of Europe’ which has always made me laugh. I do remember thinking as a kid, thoughts such as, ‘Why do people on TV sound different to me’ and being pleasantly surprised to ever hear my locality mentioned on TV which wasn’t very often! Looking back on our BBC Children Talking; ‘Day trip to Calais’ programme we all sound like ‘Inner London’ children in 1965. 

Upon reflection, it probably said more about the norms of mainstream media at that time than anything else, that made people sound that particular way.  The way you speak was always a differentiator in the UK, not just on a class level but also in a regional sense. Even today when I meet a British person somewhere in the world I can usually pick where they come from within a 20 mile radius. The differences in accent around the UK are immense for such a small place. Living in Leeds, for four years as a student, certainly made me stand out every time I opened my mouth. A particularly dangerous thing especially away at English football matches!

Going to work in the City of London at seventeen years of age had been an eye opener. Financial markets were already undergoing big changes as early as 1973. Stockbrokers were traditionally Public School educated but that was changing. My cousin, Johnny Hill, was a Comprehensive School attendee up until the age of 15.  He went into the City and literally made a million. Not sure whether his school, Cardinal Pole, ever invited him back but they ought to have done. Johnny was a trailblazer in his way by going into a work environment which had long been the domain of a narrow group of ‘well educated’ people with posh accents.

Anyone who has read anything I have written thus far will know that I am a basically optimistic person. Thus, when I recall some situations, that optimism was tested.  I always remember starting on the Stock Market and being told openly by some of the administrative staff that my accent would hold me back. “They won’t allow you to come in and take ‘their’ jobs, you don’t talk the way they do”. Those sad people would not realise that ‘education’ would actually help me get on rather than hold me back. Enrolling for and passing the various Stock Exchange examinations helped me progress in both periods I worked there 1972-5 and 1986-90. Becoming a Registered Representative and Registered Trader stood me in good stead and at the ‘front’ of change. Markets were adapting to new technology and the advent of cockney ‘barrow boys’ as traders became increasingly prevalent. As I have mentioned previously the Stock Exchange certainly tried to hang on to many of its traditions. The archaic language of the market, its conventions and prejudices were really challenged by globalisation. ‘Big Bang’ in 1985 allowed foreign banks and brokers to trade on London Markets. The Americans, especially, without actually realising it, shook up the way things were done. ‘Money’ rather ‘Old School Tie’ becoming a big differentiator. In 1987 we saw a massive rise in the FTSE 100 followed by the October crash. Up until that point ‘life was indeed imitating art’ because cash flowed freely, lunches were long and boozy while bonuses and pay were amazingly high. For a short while, “Greed was good”. By the time I left County Nat West in 1990 I felt the whole Stock Exchange culture had altered forever. Sitting in the ‘redundancy holding room’ in January 1990, I had the realisation that of the eighty people I was with, I was probably the only one to have a ‘fall back’ career, I was qualified  teacher and that is what I returned to once more. 

Emigrating to Australia in 1992 was a breath of fresh air in terms of opportunity. Terrie and I took our two children 3 and 18 months, half-way around the world, to start a new life. The fact that we started off on a caravan park for twelve weeks may be viewed by some as shocking but to me it provided a foundation for valuing everything we eventually got, we certainly benefitted from the experience and numerous work and friendship opportunities stemmed from that place.

When I eventually got my first permanent job out at John Paul II Senior High School, Marayong I fortunate enough to meet one of the main mentors in my life, Don Sykes. In the that first year Don revealed to me a whole possible pathway in the area of Business and Economics. Having studied Economics at Leeds University, worked on the Stock Market and established my own Newspaper based business, made me as qualified as most to teach these subjects. The thing that Don showed me was that in Australia and Sydney in particular, there were opportunities in and around Education. Don Sykes was a multi-published author for Longmans being the ‘Guru’, publishing numerous Business Studies texts over a period of years. One of the first things Don got me involved in was HSC Business Studies marking. This was a lucrative activity for the 350 markers in our subject but just as importantly it was a wonderful ‘educational networking and in service’ activity stretching over two weeks in December. It was usually located at one of the Sydney showgrounds at Moore Park, Alexandria or eventually the Olympic precinct. Marking certainly had a system and more importantly an intangible culture that determined the way our course was to be taught and developed. Like anywhere, there was an hierarchy at marking. Fortunately, in my second year I was made one of the Senior markers who ran a team of twelve teachers based on a particular question in the paper. Working with 350 other teachers on Business Studies marking, certainly opened one’s eyes on the range and styles of practitioners in our subject. The fact that marking participants came to sessions straight after working a full day at school was testing. Marking went from 4.00 – 8.30 and included a full day Saturday. The higher you advanced up the hierarchy the less actual marking you did but conversely you were involved for more days. In 1999 I was selected to be Assistant Supervisor of Marking working with the Supervisor and one other. Our job was to go in a few days early, receive the paper and set up the process which would last another two weeks. I can’t really imagine getting such an opportunity in the UK but in Australia I found that if you could do, what you said you could do, little would hold you back. Following on from HSC Marking I was also appointed to be one of the first Advice Line staff for Business Studies. Don Sykes encouraged me all along to take such opportunities as they arose. Working in a Catholic Systemic School we were users of the CSSA Trial examinations. Thus, when Don suggested I go on the committee that wrote that paper, I keenly accepted. The fact that hundreds of schools used the CSSA trial paper was kudos for John Paul II (and later St Pius X College) that their staff were involved in such academic pursuits in addition to teaching. After a couple of years on the committee I was asked to take over as the paper’s convenor. A role I did for almost a decade. 

Whilst at John Paul II, good friend Paul Czeleski, took me along to Meadowbank TAFE to meet the Dean of Studies. As a relatively new immigrant to Australia with a mortgage a bit of extra work was useful. An opportunity to teach there, arose several nights a week. The courses were electives for Accounting Students, Business Economics or Financial Markets, both of which I was very comfortable presenting. Over the next nine years I did round work trips initially taking in Berowra – Blacktown – Meadowbank – Berowra and then in later years Berowra – Chatswood – Meadowbank – Berowra. This TAFE lecturing experience with adult students gave me an alternative view of my job but was rewarding in a new way. I felt sorry for many of the students on the course because by ‘weeks end’ they were exhausted having already done a full day’s work followed by lectures until 9.00pm. In the early 2000’s I stumbled into a role Lecturing to HSC  Business Students doing commercial revision courses at Sydney University. I had never pictured myself at a lectern in front of 300 people but here I was. The money was useful but the ‘free parking vouchers’ we received for Sydney University themselves possessed considerable currency! Working with Don Sykes certainly shaped my experience of work in Australia. He had opened up numerous academically based opportunities for me. One such role was presenting on Globalisation for the Association of Independent Schools (AIS) down at Knox Grammar. Talking to students is one thing but actually presenting to your peers is something else. I shouldn’t have worried because the talk went well. That is until the end of day bell went at 3-00pm. There I was, with my presentation up on the big screen when suddenly the screen started to disappear up into the roof. It was electronically putting itself away! To make things worse I didn’t realise it was happening until someone at the front pointed it out to me. Fortunately, I only had a bit to go and winged it until the end. Probably the thing I am most proud of with my association with Don is when he asked me to co-author a text book with him in 1999. ‘Case Studies in Australian Business’ was published by Hodder Headline and formed a text to be used in the HSC Business Studies course. It did involve lot of work but enabled me to access my own network of friends and acquaintances in the Sydney business world. Derek Kirk at Top Hat Foods and Danone ; JB at Leica Instruments; Dave Bleasdale at Howard Smith; Paul Ryan at Dow Corning; Anthony Seaegg at Datacom/Microsoft Services; Jim Cronin at Ludowici; Chris Duck at Commonwealth Bank; Craig Burkill at Australian Communications magazine; Paul Squires at SMART research, Ian Johnson at the Hawksberry River Oyster farms and Colin Strang with his connection at Australian Pharmaceutical Industries, all gave us brilliant access and enabled the text book to take shape and ultimately be published. A proud moment. 

Australia has certainly opened its arms to me and my family in terms of opportunity. Terrie has worked for two Trans-National Corporations, both for a period of seven years. Working with the Foods CEO at Unilever and then at Novartis North Ryde, as the Site Manager and prime mover in the transformation of the business across into its $80m new premises on Waterloo Road. More recently she has worked with The SAN Hospital Foundation down at Wahroonga. All interesting jobs where opportunity was offered and taken. Dan has made a teaching career, coming through Macquarie University initially as a History teacher before showing versatility in qualifying to teach in that doyen of subjects, English. Cassie worked for seven years in Nursing Services at her alma mater Sydney University, before getting her Business MBA through that University and is currently an academic writer for Western Sydney University.  Yes, Australia has provided good opportunities for us all. 

For me heading up the Economics Business Commerce and Geography (EBGC) department at SPX for two decades is the best evidence of that. Terrie and I agree. We don’t believe the UK would have offered a chance at the same. It is a hypothetical question but that is what we believe to be true for this Cockney boy and girl away from home. Of course, football coaching opportunities deserve a whole chapter to themselves and eventually that’s what they will get.

http://stevenqoz.blogspot.com/?m=1