Monday 26 & Tuesday 27 June 2017

Novotel London West, Hammersmith

 

Each day will include a varied line-up of topical speakers and panel members.
Click an image for the speaker's information

 Paul Joyce HMI
Ofsted
 John McNamara
Innovate Awarding
 Sue Pittock
Remit
 Sam Parrett OBE FCIPD MSc
London South East Colleges
 Debbie Gardiner
Qube Learning
 Nichola Hay
Outsource Training & Development
 Barry Fletcher
Ingeus UK
 David Russell
The Education & Training Foundation
 David Pack
Greater London Authority
 Richard Guy OBE
Institute for Apprenticeships
 Nick Linford
Lsect
 Bethany Gladwood
DfE

Paul Joyce HMI

Ofsted

Paul Joyce is one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors and is the Deputy Director for Further Education & Skills. Paul joined Ofsted in 2005 as HMI having previously worked within the Further Education and Skills sector in both general and specialist further education colleges. Immediately prior to working for Ofsted, Paul was a consultant for the former Department for Education and Skills and worked on national initiatives supporting improvements to teaching and learning and in leadership and management. Paul has significant inspection experience in both the schools and further education & skills remits and prior to being appointed Deputy Director was a Senior HMI with responsibility for the college inspection programme nationally.

Peter Lauener

Institute for Apprenticeships

Peter is the Chief Executive and Accounting Officer for the Education Funding Agency and the Skills Funding Agency. He is also the Shadow Chief Executive for the Institute for Apprenticeships.

The EFA is an executive agency of the Department for Education and is responsible for the majority of the DfE’s funding of the education system - £57.98bn in 2015-16. The EFA fund all state-provided education to 8 million children ages 3 to 16 and 1.6 million young people aged 16 to 19 providing additional support to those with high needs.

SFA is an executive agency, sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills and is responsible for the funding of skills training for further education (FE) in England. SFA supports over 1,000 colleges, private training organisations, and employers with more than £4 billion of funding each year.

Peter was appointed Chief Executive and Accounting Officer when the Education Funding Agency (EFA) was formed in April 2012 and to the role of Chief Executive of the Skills Funding Agency in November 2014. Peter holds both roles concurrently and has separate accountability for each agency’s budget.

In addition, Peter has recently been appointed as Shadow Chief Executive for the Institute for Apprenticehips (IfA). Peter’s role will involve setting up the Institute before it becomes fully operational in April 2017.

Starting his career as an economist in the Government Economic Service, Peter has also worked in organisations such as the Scottish Office (pre-devolution), the Manpower Services Commission, the Department for Education and Employment and the Government Office network. He was appointed Chief Executive of the Young People’s Learning Agency in September 2010.

John McNamara

Innovate Awarding

John is currently a Non-Executive Director on the Innovate Awarding Board, and is active in the further education and skills sector as a consultant and adviser.

He was the Managing Director of Innovate Awarding for 3 ½ years and led the organisation through a period of diversification and growth into new areas including the provision of end-point assessment services.

He has over 30 years of strategic leadership experience gained in financial services and vocational education & skills. He has held senior leadership and chief executive roles in financial services companies, awarding organisations, trade associations, and professional bodies.

He was the founding Non-Executive Chair of the Federation of Awarding Bodies (FAB), the awarding industry trade association. He led the organisation for eight years, and was a member of the UK government’s Vocational Qualifications Reform Board during this period, and led on many consultations on behalf of the awarding sector.
He is an accomplished public speaker and contributor at conferences, seminars, and workshops.

Educated at the University of Wales, and Trinity College Dublin, he is professionally qualified through the Chartered Institute of Bankers, and has successfully completed the Ashridge Hult International Business School Senior Executive Development Programme.

Sue Pittock

Remit

Sue is the Chief Executive and a Group Board Director for Remit Group and brings a wealth of experience in delivering exceptional learning programmes.
Sue is an AELP Board Member and her enthusiasm for quality delivery in apprenticeships has helped her drive changes in the sector, specifically with the AELP quality forum that she chairs, working alongside Ofsted Policy makers and AELP board colleagues.
Professionally qualified with a post grad MBA, her drive and passion lies in putting the learner at the heart of everything her organisation does.
Sue’s passion is working with employers to design tailored learning programmes that add real value to the learner and the business. Utilising innovative technology along with her solution focused attitude, she provides businesses with exciting, bespoke programmes, with an enriched learning experience.
Sue believes success can only be achieved by inspiring people and creating a strong culture of teamwork.

Sam Parrett OBE FCIPD MSc

London South East Colleges

Sam Parrett OBE is the Principal and CEO of London South East Colleges. LSEC was formed following a series of mergers between the former Bromley, Bexley, Greenwich and Orpington Colleges. Through the LSEC Apprenticeship Company the College operates a managing agency which delivers over 1500 apprenticeships. She is also the CEO of Bromley Educational Trust, a multi academy trust which supports a number of schools and academies in south east London, and is building a secondary free school which will open in 2019.

Sam started her career in the learning and skills sector 25 years ago as an NVQ Assessor working for a national training provider, progressing to Regional Manager before working for a TEC, the LSC and a RDA and then joining the FE Sector to lead on apprenticeships and business development and progressing through three colleges to be appointed Principal of Bromley College of Further and Higher Education in 2010. Since joining she has led the College through a major strategic development and transformation programme and was awarded an OBE for services to further education in 2016.

Sam is a board member of AELP and Faith and Beliefs in FE (FBFE). She is a member of the HEFCE Accountability and Regulation Strategic Advisory Committee and the HEFCE Teaching Excellence & Student Opportunity Strategic Advisory Committee. She is a fellow of the CIPD and a fellow of RSA.

Debbie Gardiner

Qube Learning

Debbie joined Qube Learning in 2000 and has held a variety of leadership and management roles, initially operations and quality focused, appointed Managing Director in March 2006 and promoted to Chief Executive Officer in 2009. Debbie has a reputation for achieving results, being forthright, fair and tenacious. Debbie’s background is in retail management, HR and training and development.

Debbie has been on a Board of Directors at AELP since December 2013; initially as a co-opted member and in 2016 becoming a fully elected Board member. She is an active Board member being involved with a number of the AELP specialist groups including the ESFA anti-fraud panel working on identification and management of risk associated with Apprenticeship reforms, the AELP quality forum working directly with Ofsted to address current concerns and the impact of Reform on inspection and more recently the AELP funding group. Additionally she is an Education and Training Foundation (ETF) Leadership and Governance Programme Assessor.

In her spare time Debbie is a Cancer Research UK Campaigns Ambassador for South West Bedfordshire. This is a voluntary role, working locally and sometimes nationally to raise awareness of the CRUK political campaigns, focused on improving survival rates. Debbie is also an active CRUK fundraiser. Additionally Debbie is a member of the Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) group at the Oxfordshire Universities Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Debbie is passionate about Traineeships and Apprenticeships as a route to provide learning and development opportunities that add value to individuals and businesses alike. She has a keen interest in people and supporting them to reach their full potential. She is a true ambassador of the Traineeship programme and never tires of talking to people about the difference it makes to people’s lives and the positive impact on society and social mobility.

Barry Fletcher

Ingeus UK

Barry is the Managing Director of Ingeus UK, responsible for leading Ingeus’ diverse business which covers, Skills, Employability, Youth Services and Health. Prior to becoming MD, Barry was the COO of Ingeus from 2015, following a number of varied roles across the organisation since joining Ingeus in 2004. Barry is heavily involved in supporting the sectors in which Ingeus delivers through being a Board member of ERSA, AELP and as Chair of the BSA Welfare Committee.”

Nichola Hay

Outsource Training and Development

Nichola Hay is an expert in post 16 education in the public and private sector and has over 20 years training experience. Nichola is one of the founding directors of Outsource Training and Development, now part of the Seetec Group. In addition to her work with Outsource she is a Board director of the Association of Employment Learning Providers (AELP) and the London Work Based Learning Alliance and is a member of a number of 14-19 strategic groups, policy groups and committees.

Nichola works with Outsource's impressive list of key account customers, corporates and SME organisations, helping them to identify apprenticeship opportunities across their businesses and working with them to ensure that all programmes delivered are carefully aligned to their business objectives. Nichola passionately believes in the power of the apprenticeship programmes and is constantly devising exciting and innovative ways to help businesses embed programmes into their organisations to address their workforce plan and people strategy. As a result she has been involved in the development of many new standards and has a particular focus in driving quality in the sector.

David Russell

The Education and Training Foundation

David joined the Education and Training Foundation as CEO in January 2014. He has grown the Foundation from a fledgling organisation to one delivering effective support programmes for leaders, teachers and others across the education and training system. David has a wide range of policy and programme management experience on national education and skills policy in England, including the Academies Programme and the Adult Skills Strategy. Until 2013 David was Director of ‘Closing the Gap’ in the Department for Education, responsible for FE and Vocational Education Reform, Apprenticeships 16-18, and a range of schools policies including the Pupil Premium and pupil behaviour. Prior to joining the civil service David was a teacher.

Lyndsey Herdman

Babington Group

Lyndsey has worked in the Childcare Industry for 17 years across a variety of settings and moved in to work based learning nearly 12 years ago, as an Assessor. She is passionate about quality delivery of Apprenticeships across the Health, Social Care and Childcare sectors. Lyndsey managed the Apprenticeship delivery of Health, Social Care and Childcare within CTS Training and was with the company for 9 years as an Assessor, IQA and Operations Manager. She is now starting a new role with Babington as Operational Business Manager from May 2017. Lyndsey has a degree in Early Childhood Studies from Sheffield Hallam University and has lived in the city since starting her degree in 2001.

Richard Guy OBE

Institute for Apprenticeships

In his early career Richard worked in the Jobcentre network then as a management trainer for industry and then moved to the Manpower Services Commission’s head office in Sheffield where he was responsible for policy on vocational qualifications, design of training programmes and assessment and certification.

He was appointed Chief Executive of South and East Cheshire TEC in 1989 and was actively involved in the TEC movement nationally including working part time as Director of Policy for the TEC National Council.

Richard joined Manchester TEC as Chief Executive in 1994. In 2000 he facilitated partners to come together to form the Manchester Enterprises Group, a £100m turnover organisation responsible for determining the Economic Development Strategy for Greater Manchester and its implementation. He remained CEO of this group (renamed Manchester Solutions) until Oct 2013.

After leaving Manchester Solutions, Richard became a consultant specialising in Apprenticeships policy and strategy and has worked for three years as Policy Adviser on Apprenticeships and Technical Education at City & Guilds.

He has been employed by the Institute for Apprenticeships since February 2017 as Deputy Director responsible for Quality.

Richard was awarded the OBE in 1996 for services to training and enterprise.

Nick Linford

Lsect

Nick Linford is the technical adviser behind the popular Funding Apprenticeships Systems (FAS) tool at www.fas.report

He is editor of FE Week as well as an expert in further education funding and performance systems.
He runs a series of popular workshops, conferences and webinars about funding and data, which have been attended by more than 15,000 people in the last six years.

Nick is also author of the Complete Guide to Funding Apprenticeships (www.lsect.co.uk/guide), two books about funding and data published by Pearson and founded Lsect’s weekly newspapers: FE Week (www.feweek.co.uk) and Schools Week (www.schoolsweek.co.uk).

Prior to setting-up Lsect in 2010 Nick established an education think tank at the publishers Pearson, and before that was for seven years Director of Planning and Performance at the Lewisham College, during which time they achieved an Ofsted grade one.

David Pack

Greater London Authority

David is currently Senior Manager in the Economic & Business Policy Unit at the Greater London Authority, leading the Mayor’s work on skills, employment and small business support. He is the senior officer responsible for the Mayor’s key manifesto commitments on skills including securing a devolution deal for the Adult Education Budget, making the case for further devolution of funding and powers on skills issues to London plus work on apprenticeships and digital and construction skills among other areas.

Prior to working at City Hall, David most recently held posts at the City of London Corporation overseeing work to support the City’s neighbouring boroughs on local economic development, regeneration and skills issues. He previously worked for a major property developer and a large London-based housing association.

Formerly chair of a large credit union in East London, David has also held a voluntary trustee role at a welfare advice charity in Islington and is currently a trustee of the Tower Hamlets Education Business Partnership.

David holds a BA in Modern Languages from the University of Sheffield and a MSc in Urban Regeneration from Sheffield Hallam University.

Bethany Gladwood

DfE

Bethany Gladwood is passionate about education and her career has spanned a range of roles in the sector. She joined the Department of Education last year as Policy Adviser for Traineeships. Before this, she had a successful career as teacher for five years, where she was an English specialist and held positions at both middle and senior management level. Her interest in English stemmed from her first-class degree in this subject from The University of Sheffield. Prior to qualifying as a teacher, she worked in Children and Young People’s Services for Sheffield City Council, leading projects across range of education and learning providers, covering areas such as parent support, extra-curricular engagement, and the transition between age ranges. She also brings experience of working within student services at a large, vocational college, Colchester Institute, where she developed policies on learner voice, as well as a range of social, cultural and welfare initiatives for students.

The Rt Hon Lord Lingfield DLitt EdD DL

The Chartered Institution for Further Education

Lord Lingfield was knighted in 1993 for his services to education and created a Peer for life in 2010. He has been a teacher, researcher, lecturer and education policy maker. In the 1990s he was a senior adviser in education to the government and in charge of the policy of independence for state schools, and was Pro-Chancellor of Brunel University from 2006-13. He is author of the Lingfield Report on Professionalism in Further Education, and currently Chairman of the Cadet Vocational Qualification Organisation, CVQO, and the English Schools Orchestra.

Gordon Marsden MP

Shadow FE/HE & Skills Minister

Gordon Marsden MP was elected as the first Labour Member of Parliament for Blackpool South in 1997. He was educated at Oxford University, University of London and Harvard. Prior to his election, he was the Editor of History Today magazine. As a Member of Parliament Gordon previously was Labour Shadow Minister for Regional Growth, chair of Parliament’s All Party Education and Skills Committee, and a former member of Education and Business and Skills Select Committees. He is currently the Shadow Minister for Higher Education, Further Education and Skills.

Keith Smith

Programme Director, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Keith Smith has worked in the Skills system for more than 20 years. He has worked closely with unemployed people running local Job Clubs and implementing local employment projects. In recent years he has been leading the development and delivery of the national Further Education and Apprenticeship funding systems. Keith has been a Governor of a number schools and University Technology Colleges. He is currently the Programme Director with responsibility for implementing Apprenticeship funding reforms and the Apprenticeship Levy.

Sue Husband

Director of the National Apprenticeship Service, Skills Funding Agency

Sue Husband is the Director of the National Apprenticeship Service at the Skills Funding Agency (SFA), an executive agency of the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).

The SFA is responsible for just under £4 billion of funding each year, supporting skills training through contracts with employers, over 1,000 colleges and private training organisations in England.

Sue is responsible for the two customer facing services of the SFA – the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) and the National Careers Service.

NAS supports the delivery of apprenticeships and traineeships in England, offering free impartial advice and support to employers looking to recruit for the first time or expand their programme. This includes simplifying the process of recruiting an apprentice or trainee through the support of employer focused teams and the Find an apprenticeship and Find a traineeship recruitment sites on GOV.UK where employers can advertise their vacancies and potential apprentices or trainees can apply.

Sue’s role includes: the promotion of apprenticeships; the provision of a responsive, high-quality service to employers; working with partners to improve the design and delivery of high-quality apprenticeships and promoting and supporting traineeships as part of the apprenticeship family.

Sue also has responsibility for the National Careers Service, which provides impartial careers information and advice and guidance to adults and young people to support their decision- making about learning and work.

Sue’s role includes: ensuring the National Careers Service provides high-quality information, and independent, professional advice and guidance for those who need it most. This is done whilst ensuring people are inspired and motivated to reach their full potential, to make learning and career choices which are well-informed, through the supply of further education, work-based training and higher education which reflects individual, employer and labour market demand. The National Careers Service work with employers, schools, colleges, charities and social enterprise to ensure that people not only access and understand the information that is available, but are also inspired by the opportunities available to them locally.

Douglas Strycharczyk

Chief Executive Officer, AQR/AQR International

Doug is the CEO of AQR and for AQR International – Founded in 1989, AQR is now recognised as one of the most innovative (and fast growing) test publishers in the world working in more than 80 countries.

AQR established its reputation initially as a leader in Team Building and leadership development. Doug’s work has been featured on BBC Television where Prof John Adair described the material as “highly effective”.

In recent years, Doug has worked with Professor Peter Clough to define mental toughness and to create the world’s leading measure of mental toughness. Doug is now recognised as a leading authority on the application of mental toughness to the worlds of work, education, sport as well as social applications. His expertise is focused on helping organisations develop performance, increase retention and employee engagement and more effectively dealing with issues such as bullying and the impact of change.

Doug has more than 30 years expertise in a variety of Line, HR & Consultancy roles with a number of blue chip businesses. Doug’s areas of expertise also include Organisational Development, Senior Management/Leadership Development and Top Team Assessment.

Doug has co-authored with Professor Peter Clough chapters in the following leading books:

Psychometrics in Coaching (2009) (Kogan Page & Association for Coaching)
Leadership Coaching (2010) (Kogan Page & Association for Coaching)
Developing Mental Toughness. Improving performance, wellbeing and positive behaviour in others. (2011) (Kogan Page)
Developing Mental Toughness: Coaching Strategies to Improve Performance, Resilience and Wellbeing (2015) (Kogan Page)

Martha Jennings

Sky Academy Starting Out Manager, Sky

Martha is Sky Academy Starting Out Manager, she’s been at Sky for just under four years and in that time has established an award winning centralised work experience programme before being promoted to manage all centralised entry level talent schemes including Graduates, Apprenticeships and Work Experience which together bring in over 1200 young people to Sky each year. Prior to Sky, Martha has gained extensive experience providing opportunities for young people to develop their skills and confidence primarily in the charity sector; ranging from running the country’s biggest one day enterprise challenge ‘The Make Your Mark Challenge’, supporting schools fundraising at Comic Relief through to setting up alumni networks in state schools at Future First.