Speakers and Panel
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Martin Dunford OBE
Chief Executive - Skills Training UK and Chairman - AELP
Martin is the Chairman of AELP and Chief Executive of Skills Training UK. His company Skills Training UK is a Prime Contractor to the Department of Work & Pensions (DWP), the Education Funding Agency (EFA) delivering the Study Programme and the Youth Contract for 16 -17 year old NEETS and to the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) for Apprenticeships and Traineeships. Martin has been involved in the promotion and delivery of vocational education and skills and Apprenticeships for over twenty years.
Martin was a founding member of AELP and has been elected as its Chairman for each of the last ten years. In addition, Martin was a member of the End to End Review of Modern Apprenticeships, on the Advisory Panel to the Foster Review of Further Education and a Board member of both the Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA) and the Quality Improvement Agency (QIA).
He was also a long standing member of both the Further Education & Skills Ministerial Advisory Panel and the Apprenticeship Ambassador’s Network.
Martin was awarded an OBE in the 2010 New Year’s Honours list for services to skills training.
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Stewart Segal
Chief Executive, Association of Employment & Learning Providers
Stewart Segal was appointed to the role of AELP Chief Executive in July 2013. He has worked in the funded work based learning sector for over 20 years and in particular has supported AELP since its formation.
Previously, Stewart worked as an independent consultant within the training sector, working with a number of training providers and colleges specialising in business development and funding issues. Following a background in HR and general management in the private sector Stewart, joined Hertfordshire TEC in 1994 as Chief Executive. He also worked at the TEC for 4 years prior to joining Spring Skills as Chief Executive in 1998. Spring Skills was then the largest independent training provider in the sector involved in the delivery of a range of programmes in the service sectors such as retail, customer services, hospitality and business administration.
Stewart is also a Director of the Talent Foundation a not for profit network of organisation committed to the development of talent at work.
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Nick Boles MP
Minister of State for Skills and Equalities
Nick Boles MP was appointed as Minister of State jointly for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department for Education on 15 July 2014. He was elected as the Conservative MP for Grantham and Stamford in May 2010.
Nick went to school at Winchester College before going on to study politics, philosophy and economics at Magdalen College, Oxford. He went on to do a Masters in public policy at Harvard University in the US after winning a Kennedy Scholarship. He was elected to Westminster Council in 1998 and became Chairman of Housing. He was chairman of the Housing Committee from 1999 to 2001, before stepping down in 2002. In 2007, Nick was appointed as Head of David Cameron’s Implementation Team, which drew up the Conservative Party’s detailed plans for government. In November 2010, he was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to Nick Gibb MP, the Minister of State for Schools. He was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Planning in September 2012.
He spent the first 10 years of his career in business. He worked as a merchant banker for a few years in Germany, Russia and Eastern Europe, helping state owned industries prepare for private ownership. He and a friend later formed a small group of companies supplying the DIY industry.
Nick is also a political fellow at the Institute for Government and is the founder, and a former director, of Policy Exchange, a centre right policy research institute.
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Damian Brown
Lead for BT’s Ready to Work Programme, BT Group
Damian is the Lead for BTs Ready to Work Programme which aims to help young people into work through participation in Traineeships, Work Experience and Adult Work Placement activity.
Damian has extensive knowledge and experience of delivering large and varied Apprenticeship programmes across BT.
He has held a number of senior roles in BT including Learning & Development, Resourcing and Contact Centre Operations.
Away from work, Damian is married with three young children and also runs a successful community juniors Football Club as a volunteering ambassador for BT.
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Alan Benvie
Director of Study Programmes, Skills Solutions
Alan is Director of Study Programmes within Skill Solutions, one of the largest providers of Apprenticeships in the North West. Skills Solutions is part of the Economic Solutions Group of not-for-profit economic development service delivery companies.
Alan is responsible for Study Programmes (and Traineeships) delivered through 11 training centres and has previously managed 16-18 provision within the Learning Gateway, e2e and Foundation Learning.
With a background in applied psychology, over the last twenty years he has worked in the field of training with roles including: management development, trainer training, special needs provision and managing the delivery of programmes for unemployed young people and adults.
Prior to this he worked in counselling, commercial training, two government departments and collecting trolleys for ASDA.
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Eoin Parker
Deputy Director Pre-employment and Basic Skills Unit, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
Eoin Parker is head of the Pre-employment and Basic Skills Unit in BIS. He is responsible for policy on training for people who are unemployed to help them enter sustained employment. This includes support for young adults not in education, employment or training (NEETs), and Eoin is the SRO for the Government’s Traineeships programme.
Eoin is also responsible for policies, including Adult Community Learning, that improve outcomes for socially disadvantaged or excluded groups of learner; adult offender learning; Basic Skills, including English language training for people with English as a second language; the National Careers Service, careers and inspiration policy, connecting young people and adults to the world of work to help them make better, informed decisions about learning and career opportunities.
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David Russell
Chief Executive, The Education and Training Foundation
On 27th January 2014 David joined the Foundation as permanent CEO. David has a wide range of policy and programme management experience on national education and skills policy in England. Most recently David was Director of Closing the Gap in the Department for Education, where he was responsible for FE and Vocational Education Reform, in addition to the Pupil Premium and behaviour in schools. Prior to joining the civil service David was a teacher.
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Alex Pratt OBE
Chair of the LEP Network
Alex is an entrepreneur who began trading bankrupt stock aged 16 and has since pursued successful business ideas including the manufacture of reading lamps used on board spaceships and the creation of the world’s first learning gym.
An industrialist adviser to several Governments, he was a key catalyst behind the re-branding of Britain, created the national Brand Strategy for Barbados, and has taught at the Civil Service Top Leadership Programme.
Alex led the DTI International Innovation Team, was Chairman of the National Assessment Panel for Business Link, and was a member of the National Adult Learning and Skills Council. He chaired the South East Economic Development and Skills Board and has represented the UK abroad in the USA, at the OECD, and at the European Commission.
Alex was the founding Chairman of the Board of Entrepreneurs at the Peter Jones National Enterprise Academy and speaks regularly around the world on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. His best-selling book “Austerity Business - 39 Tips for Doing More with Less” was published in April 2010. He chairs the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) for Buckinghamshire and is the first Chair of the management board of the new LEP Network.
Alex was born three years before England won the World Cup, was awarded an OBE for services to business and education, is a holder of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion, is a founding director of the Barbados Entrepreneurship Foundation, and is a Justice of the Peace.
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Victor Farlie
Executive Chair, London Work Based Learning Alliance
Victor is the Executive Chair of the LWBLA. Over the past 10 years he has worked in the private sector creating the Capital Learning Group of companies and more recently was one of the three founder Directors of the Redwood Education Group. Prior to this he worked for Government agencies and was the Deputy Chief Executive of West London Tec.
He takes an active interest in public policy, lobbying and representing the interests of all work based learning providers in London. He also represents the LWBLA on the Board of the London Councils Young Person Education and Skills committee. He was a contributor to the Nuffield review of 14-19 Education, and for the past 30 years has supported entrepreneurs and small businesses as the Chair of the Greenwich Enterprise Board.
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Kirstie Donnelly MBE
UK Managing Director, City & Guilds
Kirstie joined City & Guilds December 2011 and is the UK Managing Director. Kirstie has worked at the forefront of the e-learning sector for over 20 years. Her previous role was with learndirect as Director of Products and Marketing, where she created the first large scale brand and online offer in the provision of adult learning. Kirstie has created award winning products across the adult and consumer learning market place and is passionate about the role of digital and social media in transforming how people live, learn and work.
In addition Kirstie spent 4 years with a Video Arts Group, originally established by John Cleese, where she took a VHS training business and transformed it into an online digital business, developing a range of award winning DVD and e-learning training products. Prior to this she was Director of Lifelong Learning & ICT for Manchester Training & Enterprise Council, and where she developed in 1997 the first of its kind Virtual Chamber of Commerce, just at the start of the Internet 'boom'. Kirstie also worked on the David Blunkett Task Force Group that established the Green paper: Learning Age. This paper set the policy agenda for a number of key Government Learning & Technology initiatives.
Kirstie has been an active member of Race Online 2012 campaign and was part of the Government’s ICT review, as well as the European Commission Review Team.
In June 2011 Kirstie was awarded an MBE in the Queens Honours for her services to e-learning in the FE/Adult sector. She is also a Fellow of Royal Society of Arts.
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Dereth Wood
Group Director of Learning, Policy and Strategy, learndirect
Dereth leads on the strategy for future service development and delivery in line with our customer’s and market expectations. She ensures that learndirect influences and promotes policy and practices that give customers the flexible, personalised, high quality service they require making the best use of technology. She focusses on improving the customer experience and customer service across the whole company. learndirect recently achieved a Grade 2 from Ofsted with a Grade 1 in Leadership and Management. Previously, Dereth was the Director of Operations from 2005 – 2013.
Dereth first joined us in 2003 as Head of the South West region but has been involved with learndirect since its inception as a manager of learning delivery in the West of England and Gloucestershire area. On finishing her degree, Dereth started her career as a maths teacher in Kenya, with VSO, and in London before moving into adult skills and community economic development in the voluntary sector. She later became involved in planning and policy in the FE sector as Head of Education at a Training and Enterprise Council (TEC) and within a Connexions company implementing programmes to support lifelong learning. Whilst working, Dereth took a part-time masters degree in public policy and retained her involvement in the voluntary sector as co-founder of a housing charity for recovering addicts and as a previous Trustee of the Greater Bristol Community Trust.
Dereth was a Commissioner on the recent Commission for Vocational, Teaching and Learning which culminated in the report ‘Its about work…’ in 2013. She recently chaired the review of the professional standards for teachers, trainers and tutors in the Lifelong Learning Sector.
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Jennifer Coupland
Deputy Director, Joint Apprenticeships Unit, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills/DfE
Jennifer Coupland is Deputy Director of the joint DfE/BIS Apprenticeships Unit and is responsible for all aspects of the current Apprenticeship programme as well as Apprenticeship reform policy. Before taking up this post in May this year, Jennifer was the Deputy Director in the Department for Education responsible for the early stages of Traineeship policy development as well as Raising the Participation Age and NEET policy.
Jennifer began her public service career in the Employment Service where she ran a benefit section in a local office and delivered a range of programmes to support long term unemployed people into work. Since moving to central Government Jennifer has worked on a number of policy areas including: benefits, schools and post-16 education.
She has also worked for two years on secondment to the voluntary sector organisation Education Extra.
Jennifer is married and has three daughters.
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Karen Woodward
Deputy Director – Apprenticeships and Employer Implementation Policy, Skills Funding Agency
Karen was born and brought up in Bootle, Merseyside.
The majority of Karen's career has been in the Public Service Sector/quasi public sector, including the Inland Revenue, Department for Employment and the Manpower Services Commission. She has worked in a variety of senior director positions in both strategic and operational positions.
Karen has worked as Executive Director of an Enterprise Agency offering support to start up and micro businesses and directed a complete turnaround in the organisation's profitability.
In March 2001, Karen joined the LSC in Derbyshire as Head of Employer and Schools Liaison. She was instrumental in helping Derbyshire secure one of the first ever Employer Training Pilots in the Country which was the pre-cursor to the Train to Gain service.
In April 2006, Karen took up the role of the Director of Regional Skills in LSC East Midlands, leading work on the development and delivery of skills provision to meet the needs of employers, learners and communities to improve prosperity for all. This included an interesting secondment to LSC National Office as the Director for Skills for Employers, responsible for the LSC’s national policy work on Train to Gain and Sectors.
Karen was the Divisional Apprenticeship Director for the Central Division – covering the East Midlands, West Midlands and East of England and then the National Director of Apprenticeships -leading the National Apprenticeship Service senior management team.
Karen has now been appointed as the Deputy Director – Apprenticeships and Employer Implementation Policy at the Skills Funding Agency.
When not in work, Karen enjoys a good murder (well reading about it), following the exploits of her favourite football team, Everton, and an active family life.
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Gordon Birtwistle MP
Government Apprenticeship Ambassador
Gordon was born in Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire and has lived in Burnley since he was a child. Upon leaving school he undertook an apprenticeship and had a successful career in manufacturing, including starting his own company.
Gordon was elected Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Burnley in the 2010 elections. He has also been a councillor for 31 years, and previously the leader of the council and town mayor.
At the 2010 Election he achieved a 12% swing, overturning what was once a 17,062 Labour majority and breaking a 75 year Labour stronghold. He is the first Lib Dem MP for the town. Gordon's main aim as an MP is to serve Burnley to the best of his ability.
Since being elected Gordon has been prominent in Parliament. Upon election, he was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Danny Alexander, Chief Secretary to the Treasury and was also the 'oldest new MP'.
4 years into the Coalition Government, Gordon has achieved a lot as an MP in both the constituency and Westminster. He is the Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Committee on Business, Innovation and Skills and the Co-Founder of the Lib Dem Campaign for Manufacturing which are issues close to his heart. Last year, Gordon was appointed as Government Ambassador for Apprenticeships. His job is to promote and advocate apprenticeships to businesses, young people and schools across the country; working closely with the National Apprenticeship Service and BIS. He is also Chair of the APPG on Apprenticeships in Parliament which he helped to set up in 2010.
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Gemma Dunford
Senior Relationship Manager, UCAS Progress
Gemma has worked in the education sector for over ten years, and is now responsible for engaging with schools and careers advisers across the UK, to ensure that young people are aware of the different post-16 options available to them.
This involves helping students make informed decisions, and finding the right opportunity for them. Her role has become increasingly important since the introduction of RPA, given the need to increase education and training provision for 16-18 year old students.
Her role also involves helping work-based learning providers improve their recruitment efforts, and developing a suite of information and advice aimed at guiding young people into further education and training.
Prior to her current role, Gemma was responsible for training and implementing the UCAS Progress system; which saw her working closely with schools, colleges, and work-based learning providers.
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Keith Donnelly
Business Development Manager, Carillion Training Services
Keith has been involved in apprentice training for the construction industry for many years.
In a career spanning over 40 years Keith has had a number of senior roles, in large construction firms, managing the development and delivery of skills training programmes.
Keith has experienced first hand, the recent changes in the way the construction industry carries out its work, which have resulted in recurring skill shortages in the sector. Keith has led the transformation of Carillion’s apprentice training programme, in response to these changes.
Carillion is the largest employer based, work based training provider in construction, employing and training a large number of apprentices, for its supply chain and the rest of the sector.
Carillion operates a national network of apprentice training centres and is currently graded by OFSTED as a ‘good’ provider with a number of ‘outstanding’ features.
Keith is an AELP strategic forum member and chairs the AELP construction group. Keith is a member of the SFA funding advisory and audit evidence groups and sits on the CITB Training Committee and Skills Provision Committee. Keith is also a member of the Construction Apprentice Trailblazer Steering Group and chairs the wood trade sub-group, which is developing new apprenticeship standards for the largest occupational skill area in the sector.
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