As a membership organisation, The Training Gateway's philosophy is that its members and stakeholders should influence the direction taken. The Operational and Strategic Boards that support the Training Gateway are central to this philosophy. The Strategy Board provides a representative sample of our stakeholders whose guidance on matters of ongoing and future developments of the Training Gateway is invaluable. It is the role of the Strategy Board to monitor progress and offer advice to ensure that The Training Gateway continues to meet its mission and primary aims and objectives.
Members of the Strategy Board are shown below.
Mark Hilton - London First
Mark is Programme Director for Education and Employment. He account manages members from the HE & FE sectors, and is responsible for driving London First’s key policy initiatives and projects that relate most closely to these sectors, including skills and employment, and immigration. He joined London First from The Association of Colleges where he managed the London region, with responsibility for the AoC’s regional network and programmes. Previously he worked in local government for 4 years providing policy advice and training support to councillors as well as leading on neighbourhood planning activity, and as a retail property consultant for eight years, working for blue chip property companies.
Richard Pelly - British Expertise
Richard Pelly is a Director at British Expertise. He was a Chartered Engineer for 33 years and worked in a maritime environment. He joined British Expertise in 2003 and now leads on the Asia Pacific region.
Glenn Robinson- Skills Funding Agency
Glenn Robinson is the Head of Employer Engagement at the Skills Funding Agency. He has played a leading role in the launch and implementation of the Train to Gain service since 2006 during which time he was responsible for the Skills Brokerage service and then led on the transfer of this service to RDAs in 2009. Glenn’s previous positions include Director roles in Surrey LSC and Tec (1999-2003), General Manager of Edexcel Employer Business Unit (1995-9), Head of Training & Education at a professional body (1991-95) and Policy Manager for A/AS levels at AQA (1988-1991). Glenn’s work in the education sector began with teaching 11-18 year olds in comprehensive schools (1983-8).
Dr Ralph Blunden - London Higher
Dr Ralph Blunden was both an undergraduate and a postgraduate student at the University of Sussex where he gained a DPhil in Organometallic Chemistry. Since leaving Sussex in 1997, his career has spanned both private and public sectors in the UK and overseas. For the past three years, he has worked for Gartner, a leading world advisor on technological investment where he led strategic account management for UK IT Services and Communications providers with clients that included major operators such as BT, Logica and 02 UK.
Eileen Roddy - Chartered Institute of Management Accountants
Eileen is the Head of the CIMA Business School and Relationship Framework – responsible for all entry to Membership, exemptions for students on registering and the CIMA Business School. Previously she has managed the International Business interface between a large HE Business School and its partners, was a Principal Lecturer in International Business Strategy in Higher Education, a Development Manager in the national Brewery Sector and a Consultant to high growth SMEs. Educated at Manchester University and MBS. Her recent research has been into the role of Audit Committees in Governance and responsible/ethical management initiatives.
Richard Parry - UK Trade & Investment
Richard has been involved in export promotion throughout his career, including working with the railway industry, promoting business links between the UK and the Gulf States and heading UKTI's team dealing with leisure and tourism. For the last four years he has been running the Education and Skills team. He notes "when I was invited to take this job, I imagined it would be dreadfully dull, coming after theme parks and attractions. How wrong I was. This is a dynamic and fast-moving sector where the UK has a fantastic reputation. And it is full of really nice people - which helps enormously"
James Kewin - CFE
James is Managing Director of CFE an independent, not for profit organisation dedicated to increasing social and economic prosperity across the UK. In recent years, James has provided his policy development, research and project management expertise to a wide range of government departments and agencies responsible for delivering the employment and skills agendas and has worked extensively with universities, colleges and employers. In addition to authoring influential research reports on issues such as graduate employability, employer investment in higher level skills, youth unemployment and workforce development, James is a regular commentator on, and contributor to, UK employment and skills policy.
James Fothergill - CBI
After leaving University James joined the CBI and worked on employment and public services policy. He was appointed Head of Education & Skills in May 2010 taking responsibility for issues such as employer investment in workforce skills, the importance of developing employability and science, technology, engineering and maths skills in schools, colleges and universities, and the value of business-higher education, further education and school partnerships.
Christina Williams - Professional Associations Research Network
Tina has worked as Research Project Leader at PARN for 5 years and has developed an excellent understanding of the professional body sector, gained through a variety of research and consultancy projects for PARN’s members and clients. Before joining PARN, she worked in educational and cultural research, and now has particular expertise in the area of CPD. Her research interests include: support for and measures of CPD; HEIs and CPD provision; competency frameworks; accreditation processes; professional qualification examination processes; professional standards and ethics; professional complaints and discipline approaches and procedures; sustainable development and professional practice; member networks; membership satisfaction surveys; research design and qualitative research methodologies.
Amanda Selvaratnam - Director
Following a scientific career in research and industry, Amanda moved into business intelligence with Glaxo SmithKline, prior to joining the University of York. At York Amanda established an IT training company to provide business-focussed training for SMEs. She is currently Head of Corporate Training at the university responsible for the strategic development of executive and professional training courses across all sectors. In 2007 Amanda established the UK Universities CPD Network which later became known as theTraining Gateway.
Louise Clayton - Secretariat
Louise is the Training Gateway Manager. She is responsible for the operation of the brokerage, including stakeholder liaison, training service management and exploring new business opportunities. Louise has had seven years extensive experience in project management and training in both the Further Education and Higher Education sectors. In her previous role Louise supported the Construction and Built Environment sector for the West Yorkshire Lifelong Learning Network. Louise developed the sector across the region by working with industry to plan, design and deliver relevant couses e.g.Foundation Degree in Sustainable Construction.
John Mountford - Association of Colleges
John Mountford is Association of Colleges’ International Director, working closely with Colleges in developing and supporting their international work. He also represents the sector through attendance on several boards and advisory groups including; UNESCO, JET, WFCP, UCAS, Skills for Employability, EUproVET, TVET and Training Gateway.
John has twenty years of experience working with international students and international partners. This has included time working as a teacher and teacher trainer in Mexico, Czech Republic and Greece and in the private sector as a Director of Studies for a large language school chain. Prior to taking up his post with AoC, John worked as Thames Valley University’s International Director. His experience of working in FE has included six years as Sussex Downs Colleges’ International Manager. In this period the College was awarded a prestigious Beacon Award for its international work. John strongly believes in the important and valuable role international students and partnerships play in enriching College life.
