Learning at Work Week 2026 – Meet Mitchell Beresford

Learning at Work Week 2026 is all about the ‘Many Ways to Learn’. Recognising that personal and professional growth doesn’t just happen in a classroom.

Whether it is through learning by doing, coaching from a supportive tutor, or social learning with colleagues, there are so many paths to building new skills. We know that balancing a qualification with a busy job is a journey full of different experiences, so we asked some of our apprentices to share theirs. These stories highlight the various ways our learners have harnessed their own potential to grow, evolve, and succeed in their roles.

Recently we asked them to share their Apprenticeship journey, looking at the different ways they have picked up new skills and the impact this has had on their career so far.

Meet Mitchell Beresford, a Senior Payroll Administrator at DFS.

Question 1 – What made you decide to take on an Apprenticeship rather than another route into the role?
I’ve been in payroll straight out of college and have really enjoyed being in the payroll work and the roles I have been in, I decided that I wanted to get a Qualification behind me so that I could excel further into the payroll world and hopefully progress further into more senior positions.

Question 2 – What were you hoping to get out of the Apprenticeship when you started?
I was hoping to really cement my knowledge in Payroll and start asking the why questions, why we do certain things? The legislation behind them etc. as knowing the why is extremely important to me and allows me to better understand elements of payroll.

Question 3 – Were there any nerves or doubts going in?
I won’t lie I was slightly nervous going into the Apprenticeship as I knew you had to put the work in and balance this around your full time job also, but my tutor Megan Smith has been an absolute miracle, always supported me where I needed and has been the best tutor I could have ever asked for.

Question 4 – What is something you have learned through your Apprenticeship that you have actually used at work?
I think this Apprenticeship in it’s entirety has been essential to my BAU work, however, specific topics like Gross to Net calculations and the Pensions workshop have helped me gain crucial insight into the why and how these elements of payroll work. It has allowed me to apply this to my job and greatly assisted me in a systems migration project where I was able to put this knowledge to use and help build essential calculations and pro-rating ruling into the system based on business needs.

Question 5 – Has there been a moment where something “clicked”?
This for me has to be pensions, coming into the Apprenticeship this was my weakest topic area and with how confusing pensions is and it’s legislation it was something I at first could not get my head around. Once I had to workshop with Megan it just “Clicked” and then the BAU work on pensions became a lot clearer allowing me to fill this vital knowledge gap.

Question 6 – How do you fit learning around your day job?
With a lot of change in my role as I’ve progressed through my Apprenticeship it has becoming increasingly harder to fit my Apprenticeship around this, however, I prevailed by protecting my OTJ time with my life. Simply planning ahead and around deadlines whilst blocking out time in my calendar to ensure everyone is aware of when I am taking the time to do my OTJ and in a sense shut off from everyone around this time to ensure I am using the time effectively and not fall behind.

Question 7 – What is the most useful support you have had?
Simply put I could not have come this far without my tutor who has been an absolute star and has taught me and worked with me in the most effective learning style for me. This has allowed me to really absorb the knowledge and retain this for my actual job. My colleagues have also been huge supporters giving me the time I need to shut off from everyone and knuckle down with my Apprenticeship in times where I have needed it the most.

Question 8 – What can you do now that you could not do before you started?
Gross to Net calculations and using tax tables! I think this was a huge step for me. Beyond this it was also being able to not only calculate pension contributions but learning the difference in pension types e.g. relief at source and Net pay arrangement as we use both in our organisation. This made it a lot clearer and helped me understand why we have both and the reasons for the different calculations.

Question 9 – Have you noticed a change in your confidence, your responsibilities, or how others see you at work?
Huge changes in my reasonability’s include sole ownership of a payroll and becoming the point of contact. I was also given a “Hatchet” to basically destroy and rebuild processes, checks and controls for the payroll to build this in my image and create user friendly SOP’s enabling me to continue to eliminate the various points of failure I had identified in the payroll.

Question 10 – In one sentence, what would you say the Apprenticeship has given you?
The confidence to ask why and apply continuous improvement to the payroll and team.

Question 11 – What would you say to someone in your team or sector who is thinking about an Apprenticeship but has not taken the leap yet?
If you are serious about a career in payroll and wish to progress further, I could not recommend this qualification and further qualifications more! The knowledge and applications I have already been able to make are invaluable to my payroll experience and career growth, If you are someone who really likes to understand why we do what we do and wishes to be excel in payroll for me this has been a no brainer.

Mitchell Beresford
Senior Payroll Administrator at DFS.