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From improving healthcare systems to helping stranded travellers return to Britain, is putting his ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Leicester (²ÝÁñÊÓƵ) degree to good use during the pandemic.

It all started when the Computer Science alumnus landed his first job after graduating in 2013, as an IT Trainer initially and then a Business Analyst at RLDatix, a patient safety technology company which builds software to help healthcare providers learn and improve.

The 30-year-old from Harlow, Essex said: “My first role involved training healthcare workers across the UK. I got to better understand what was needed from the platform, and became a Business Analyst working with developers and customers to make improvements and build new products.

“The company’s goal is to improve patient safety and ultimately save lives. I helped build a new product with a greater focus on investigating incidents and implementing improvements.”

Four years later, Chris took a role as a Product Implementation Manager at Cox Automotive UK, a company providing automotive digital solutions, including Motors.co.uk which is now part of eBay. Working in a particularly multicultural team gave him a new perspective on life.

“Discussing life in other countries with colleagues and friends really opened my eyes to the world. I decided I wanted to explore living and working abroad, and after deciding on Australia, I left my job to pursue my dream,” he said.

“It was a big decision, but on arrival in Sydney I got in touch with my old company, RLDatix. They happened to be starting a largescale project and my previous experience led them to offering me the job.”

Chris spent the next year and a half working as a Lead Business Analyst within the New South Wales government health office, helping to secure and deliver a patient safety web platform used across 220 hospitals by 150,000 employees.

He said: “The project finished in March 2020, just as the coronavirus pandemic started, and I’m confident that our software would have had a positive impact for both patients and healthcare professionals during such challenging times.”

After his contract ended, and unaware of the magnitude of Covid-19 at the time, Chris planned to travel before returning to the UK. Shortly after arriving in New Zealand, all airplanes were grounded and he was stranded along with thousands of other visitors.

“Thankfully I had savings to support me for the two months I was grounded there, but other people had run out of money, were separated from their children, or were NHS workers who were desperate to get back and help in the fight against Covid,” Chris said.

When a British woman started a campaign to lobby the UK government into helping nationals to return home, Chris reached out to her offering his help.

He said: “After appearing in the media and across social media, she had thousands of people emailing her for help, so I put the technical skills I learned at ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ and during my career to good use.

“I figured out a way to extract everyone’s email addresses and set up a mailing list. I then collated practical details of flights to the UK and sent daily emails to help people get back home.”

Shortly after returning to the UK himself, Chris secured a job as a Product Owner at IMMJ Systems, a company helping healthcare organisations to digitalise their paper records.

“This was a particularly timely project, as I was able to support the development of a digital document management system used by the NHS and private healthcare companies, allowing employees working remotely during the pandemic to access important information and carry out their jobs,” he said.

Last month Chris accepted a role at Capita, a multinational consulting and digital services company, working as a Business Analyst to improve software products used by central and local government.

Chris attributes much of his success to the opportunities that were available to him at ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ. He said: “I chose ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ because of the modern facilities and welcoming atmosphere. My tutors and technicians were fantastic, and I loved how accessible and exciting Leicester is.

“Then there’s the valuable experiences I had. I did a yearlong work placement as an IT Technician at a local primary school, which was my first proper job and a great way to learn about responsibility and how the workplace operates.

“Through the students’ union, I also volunteered for a local charity, teaching elderly people with arthritis how to use technology. It reinforced how much I enjoyed helping people use technology and that I was good at it too. Ultimately, my placement year and the volunteering helped prepare me for my career.”