About

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.

Dawn is Chief Executive and Principal of Burton and South Derbyshire College (BSDC) and Deputy Chair Europe for the World Federation of Colleges and Polytechnics.  She has extensive experience in senior positions at Board level (both as a NED and Chair) across a number of national groups and a PLC.  She is a graduate of Oxford Brookes University, has had a successful international career, is a published author and has been a successful WorldSkills Chief expert and training manager for WorldSkills UK.

She has received numerous awards throughout her extensive career in technical and professional education including Principal of the year from the Centre for Excellence in Leadership, leadership in race equality award from the Network for Black and Asian Professionals and Highly commended in the Prince Philip Medal award for her professional accomplishments.

Dawn has led BSDC through a major transformation resulting in a truly global college offering a range of bespoke and innovative products in the UK, Saudi Arabia and Asia. BSDC has won numerous awards including the World Federation of Colleges and Polytechnics gold award for Higher Technical Vocational Education.

Lesley has worked in the education and training sector for the majority of her career. Prior to her appointment as CEO and Principal for The Trafford College Group, she was Senior Vice President and Senior Responsible Officer for Pearson, with responsibility for qualification standards, quality and the awarding of all academic and vocational qualifications. She was also responsible for the development of all vocational qualifications worldwide. Lesley joined Pearson from the Association of Colleges (AoC) where she was Deputy CEO and led on UK and international education policy, AoC Create and business development. Lesley has also held senior positions in the Learning and Skills Council and the Adult Learning Inspectorate.

In 2016 she became Chair of the newly formed UK Skills Partnership Board, a network of the UK’s leading education sector organisations and which was established to promote the development of vocational and technical skills internationally. She is a member of the DIT’s Ministerial Education Sector Advisory Group and British Council’s Education Advisory Board. She is also an advisor to a large tech based education organisation specialising in apprenticeship. In 2018 Lesley was a member of the Prime Minister’s trade delegation to China and she has worked extensively overseas advising governments on Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET).

Lesley is a Trustee for two education charities, Helena Kennedy Foundation and CVQO.

In 2015 she was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to education, she is also a fellow of the Chartered Institution for Further Education

Helen has significant experience in working across the whole FE sector including General FE colleges, local authorities and Adult and Community Learning providers and now as Principal at the Working Men’s College.

Her first degree is in Librarianship and she started her working career in college libraries at the London College of Fashion and then the London college of Printing. Both colleges are now part of University of Arts London. She then completed an MA at University College London and moved into full time teaching. She taught A level History and English at Southgate College and then progressed into management roles where she created the Adult studies department developing a portfolio of Access to Higher Education courses whilst having a national role as the Chair of the Forum for Access Studies. She was involved in the development of the Open College Network for North London and Hertfordshire and chaired the Access committee and many validation panels. In partnership with Middlesex University, Helen developed and delivered teacher-training courses in the Gambia. Helen worked for Lewisham Council following a failed Ofsted inspection where she remodelled the whole service whilst achieving an Ofsted Good grade at re-inspection.

Helen became Principal of Working Men’s College in 2014 where she led a total review and remodelling of the curriculum, alongside a substantial growth in learner numbers. She has introduced a portfolio of formal vocational qualifications alongside their non-accredited community learning. The College gained chartered status of the Chartered Institution for Further Education (CIFE) in March 2018 and in July 2019 was awarded a Fellowship of the CIFE.

Chris Jenks is a sociologist. He has published thirty books and numerous articles and chapters in books, many on the topics of education, childhood and culture. He has taught at every level from primary through to postgraduate, and was Head of Department, Professor and Pro-Warden (Research) at Goldsmiths College, and Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Brunel University. He is a Visiting Professor at the University of Trondheim, Norway and has been External Examiner at over ten UK Universities.

Crawford joined Hawk Training in 2001 and has worked in both a training and commercial capacity. He assumed the role of Managing Director in 2016 from his previous role as Commercial Director. Hawk has supported thousands of learners on Apprenticeship and CMI-accredited management programmes and works with around 400 employers across a range of vocational sectors in both the public and private sectors. Sectors include Business Administration, Early Years, Improving Operational Performance, IT, Learning and Development, Management, Team Leading and Warehousing and Storage. Hawk enables young people to secure apprenticeship positions whilst supporting organisations to recruit apprentices and enhance their succession planning as well as upskill existing staff. Following inspection in September 2013, Hawk became the first independent learning provider in the country to be graded ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted under the then common inspection framework. In 2017, the organisation became the first independent learning provider to gain membership of the Chartered Institution for Further Education.

Crawford is a member of the AELP London Advisory Board and the AELP Strategic Forum. He is also a member of the Chartered Institution for Further Education.

Rajinder Kaur Mann OBE DL is the former Chief Executive of the Network for Black and Asian Professionals and the former Executive Director of the Black Leadership Initiative. She was awarded an OBE for her services to the BAME community in 2011, an Honorary Doctorate from Wolverhampton University in 2013 and installed as a Deputy Lieutenant for the West Midlands in 2020. Rajinder has served on a variety of national committees and has a wealth of experience spanning the education sector.

Dr Sam Parrett OBE is the Group Principal and CEO of London & South East Education Group.

Sam was appointed Principal of Bromley College in 2010, overseeing a merger with Orpington College the following year. Then in 2016, she led the country’s first three-way College merger, bringing together Bromley College, Bexley College and Greenwich Community College to form London South East Colleges – which now has over 13,000 students, c1000 staff and a total group turnover of £60m.

Strong progression into college has been supported by Sam’s successful establishment of a multi-academy trust which includes eight alternative, special and mainstream schools.

London & South East Colleges Group, headed up by Sam, was established in 2017 as the overarching organisation encompassing London South East Colleges, London South East Academies Trust and an apprenticeship provider – London Skills for Growth.

Sam started her career in the HR sector. She then managed a training provider and worked for a funding agency before joining the FE sector in 1997. She took up posts in two colleges before being
appointed Principal at Bromley in 2010.

Sam is a fellow of the CIPD and a fellow of the RSA, as well as a Vice-Chair of Mixed Economy Group (MEG). She was awarded an OBE for services to Further Education in 2016 and achieved her Doctoral Degree in Education in 2019. Following this, Sam became a National Leader of Further Education (NLFE) – one of just eleven in the country and was appointed as an advisor to a new independent group, set up to support disabled students – Disabled Students’ Commission. She was recognised as TES FE Awards 2020 Leader of the Year.

Ian Pryce has been Principal & Chief Executive of Bedford College since 1998, having joined the College in 1996 as Finance Director. He was previously a regional Finance Director at the Further Education Funding Council and has also worked as a Director or Senior Manager in retail, electricity generation and local government in Liverpool, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Northamptonshire. He is a fellow of the accountancy body CIPFA and a Syndic of the University of Cambridge. He was one of the founder members of the 157 Group, founding Chair of the Bedford Free School and was awarded a CBE in the 2011 Queen’s Birthday Honours. In August 2017, the College merged with Tresham College to form The Bedford College Group.

Mike is Principal of East Riding College, part of the TEC Partnership, one of the largest outstanding providers of further education in the country. He joined East Riding College in January 2018 from the College of North West London, where he was Deputy Principal for three-and-a-half years, leading it to a successful merger as a Good college. Mike has been a senior leader, with extensive experience in FE Colleges, Schools and Private Training Providers, since 1996 and also worked for six years as an Additional Inspector for Ofsted in London and the South East Region.

Originally from Cambridge, via the North West, Leicestershire and London, Mike’s work has taken him across the country, and he has worked nationally, in London and in the East Midlands.

Mike believes passionately in providing the best possible quality of educational provision for all students, whatever their starting point. He believes further education should provide high quality training opportunities for local people, communities and employers, working in partnership to help drive economic regeneration. Mike’s role as Principal of East Riding College is to drive and lead this agenda on behalf of the students, staff and governors, to transform lives and help people reach their full potential.

In March 2015, Mike was appointed an Honorary Member of the City and Guilds of London and was awarded the Fellowship of the Chartered Institution for Further Education in May 2019.

Professor Andrew Wren joined Furness College as Principal and Chief Executive in September 2015. Having grown up in North Cumbria, he moved to East Yorkshire, graduating from the University of Hull in 1993 with a BA (Joint Honours) in Modern Languages. After some time studying and teaching English in Linköping, Sweden, he began a career in hospitality and retail management, and undertook part-time teaching during the evenings. In 2002, he moved full time into Further Education as a lecturer at Hull College, progressing to Curriculum Leader and then Head of School, before taking up a director post at East Riding College where he later became Vice Principal.

He completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Education at the University of Huddersfield and a Postgraduate Diploma in Management with the Chartered Management Institute. He is also a fellow of the Chartered Institution for Further Education, a Board member of the Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), Deputy Chair of the Board of St. Mary’s Hospice in Ulverston and a Governor at his son’s school.

Andrew is also Professor of Practice in Collaborative Education Leadership at the University of Cumbria, a role designed to support a closer working relationship between the FE and HE sectors.

During his first year in post in Barrow, he led the successful merger of Furness College and Barrow Sixth Form College, securing the breadth of post-16 education in Furness. Andrew is committed to providing the highest quality provision and believes firmly that Further Education colleges, such as Furness College, have a critical role to play in providing learning opportunities to help transform the lives of individuals and impact positively on employers.