Chelsea
Pordage

An apprenticeship with room to grow
Chelsea's story so far...

A chance conversation with her local bank manager gave Chelsea Pordage a new direction at 17. Teaching disruption at sixth form had left her looking at alternatives to university, and an apprenticeship with Lloyds Banking Group offered a way to start learning at work. She completed it ahead of schedule and earned two promotions.

Mortgages caught her interest because she could see the difference owning a home made to people's lives. At Suffolk Building Society, she moved from the intermediary mortgage helpdesk into team leadership, supporting colleagues through a new mortgage system and a rebrand. Having joined during the pandemic, she also had to learn how to build those relationships remotely.

Telephone and field business development roles at Harpenden followed, before Chelsea joined Aldermore in February 2026. She now spends time with brokers understanding where applications struggle and what might help. Several firms have improved their application to offer conversion, with increases of up to 13% reported. Some new relationships brought more than £5 million of applications within six months.

Chelsea also enjoys finding practical ways to make work easier – including introducing a process which more than halved the time needed for broker communications and was adopted across the team. Alongside developing her own leadership skills, she takes part in careers events and financial education, helping younger people discover the opportunities that a conversation once opened up for her.