National / International Coverage

Innovate CV, a global interactive resume platform.

The resume and associated recruitment process has remained static for too many years, which has led to dissatisfaction amongst all involved; after all there is only so much a black and white ‘Word’ document can achieve.

Innovate CV, as the name suggests, brings creativity and innovation to the recruitment process, making it easier for both those hiring and job seekers.

Innovate CV has a diverse product set; but all with the same objective:

For the candidate - To increase their chance of getting their desired job.

For the person hiring - To find the right candidate quicker.

Modern technology has changed and continues to change the way we operate every day, making us more efficient in everything we do. If you're a candidate, university, College, Training Provider, staffing agency or employer, it's now time to welcome the product that will revolutionize the way you bring new talent into your organization.

TSIP  is an advisory business that aims to combine academic research and rigour with strategy and delivery support to solve some of the most intractable problems in society.

We have three fundamental contributions to make:

To tackle social issues in communities and wider society and help citizens get back on, or stay on their feet in life.

To use innovation in finding action-oriented solutions to the issues of crime, disorder and inequality that challenge our society.

To work with the public, private and third sectors, bringing partnerships and networks together, to achieve the most valuable solutions.

We are free from dogma and harness best practice from international consulting, academic subject expertise and leading service organisations.

North East Apprenticeship Company ( NEAC) is a new start up business that is in existence to try new models of engagement, skills matching and investments in apprenticeships across the UK. There are 12 apprentice training agencies ( ATA’s) that have been supported by national government as a response to the global downturn and the possibility of lack of investment in young people and their future skills.

Being a new start up, it is my responsibility to ensure that from day one, the foundations of good and innovative business practice are embedded. I have total responsibility for the success and development of NEAC. I have to ensure that I am able to develop models that will tap into the marketplace effectively while also strategically placing NEAC at the heart of developing skills for the future across the UK. It is my aim that NEAC will be the leading ATA within the UK by 2012, built on the quality of its apprenticeships, the strength of its partnerships and it employer relationships, and also its impact on our economy.

I have recently been working on developing and International Apprenticeship strategy and brand that has been received will in China and Hong Kong. I have also been advising the Hong Kong Government on its vocational skills policy and how to deal with the increasing youth unemployment. After visiting Hong Kong in July 2010, I will be hosting a delegation from the Vocational Training Council in the North East in September 2011.

I set up and manage this Linkedin group to try and get a real debate about the value of apprenticeships across the region. The group links with other apprenticeship groups on linkedin to attempt to capture the collective voice of apprenticeships.

I also started www.apprenticeshipblog.com as the Independent voice of apprenticeships. We need to spread the word about how great apprenticeships are for young people and employers and this is really my small attempt to do this.

National & International Assignments

As an associate consultant, I undertake interim management positions and deliver various one day and weekly residential business development courses around the following subjects:

• Change Management.
• 360 Reviews
• Business & Strategic Planning
• Getting the right systems & Process management
• Quality Improvement Strategies
• Tendering and securing funds
• Developing and sustaining successful partnerships
• Social Networking and new media in business
• 14-19 and Adult learning planning and strategies
• Emotional Intelligence  & resilience.
• Change The Way You Think Modeling
• Project Management
• Business start up, mentoring and coaching
• E-learning and online learning development

Because the age of business conventionalism has disappeared, and we have rapidly been moving into a business delivery environment where the impact of external factors and the ravenous appetite for change needs to be continually fed, the methods by which we used to develop, progress and strategize our business processes, is now in danger of being meaningless.

If business models are to be useful in the global marketplace, there needs to be something that current business practice can 'grow' into, and re model when needed for the future demands.

A Change The Way You Think we believe there are 4 fundamental components that need to be balanced to ensure that any organization can face change head on and use it to its advantage. These 4 components are "The Culture", "The Execution", "The People" and "The Environment". These are the four components that make up the front end of the "Change The Way You Think" model.

At Change the Way You Think we share the belief that our fresh ideas can challenge conventions and bring about real change in thinking and practice in both individuals and businesses. We're smart and passionate about what we do and we relish the opportunity to think creatively and bring about change for, and with our clients. And we also believe that our jobs should be rewarding, fun and sympathetic on our natural resources - which is why everyone who is part of the team is encouraged to innovate, inspire and develop Change the Way You Think, as an authentic and exciting business.

From July 2010, I have been working with the Hong Kong Government and the British Chamber of Commerce, in developing a viable and robust Apprenticeship scheme to assist in talking the youth unemployment issue.  This has been a fascinating journey as to deliver my findings with take a change in the current law.  This is ongoing and will hopefully lead to the development of an innovative and high impact apprenticeship programme in Hong Kong.

As a Director at B-Skill Ltd, I had a very wide a varied role.  I  had National responsibility for Business development, strategy and tendering, Quality assurance, Sales and Marketing, IT & E-learning, and all of our learning delivery programmes. In total I had responsibility for 54 staff over our 7 UK sites.

The above responsibilities translated into writing tenders to increase revenue and project funding on top of our core government funding via the Learning and Skills Council. Within my role I also had to manage our provision through change, maintain a culture of continuous improvement, ensure service to learners, customers, employers and other partners where not adversely affected, while also maximising revenue and ambitious expansion plans.

I had to manage and plan complex budgets across various programmes, and at ground level set targets for income and expenditure which where managed carefully and reported on effectively.  I also oversaw the quality assurance and continuous improvement process.  This entailed regularly looking at and interpreting output statistics observations of teaching and learning practice, ISO and European Social Fund audits along with Ofsted inspections.

One of the wider functions that I carried out Nationally is ensuring that we have effective and collaborative partnerships to not only enhance but also to support our delivery across the uk.

My role was as regional manager was to complete and business turnaround of the  learning centres in the Northern Region.  I joined as a training manager and was very quickly promoted to take over the regional managers job.  This was due to the fact that we were loosing money on many of our contracts, and also very close to having some contracts taken off us if we could not show marked improvement.  I highlighted quickly that this was due to staff under performance, cultural and strategic issues.  

In order to overcome this issue I had to develop the strategy and vision, improve accountability and build a team that felt they were part of something worthwhile. It also involved setting up new programmes and improving the quality of existing programmes, NVQ delivery, and developing partnerships with national and regional support organisations.  I linked programmes into prison education to create pre release links to community learning and leisure programmes.

I then managed to engage the Youth Justice Board to fund the regional ISSP within our training centre in Newcastle ( £3M over three years).  This led to a major building refurbishment and new staff being recruited for this specialist delivery.  

At time of leaving NACRO the centre had moved from a loss making region into a profitable one with it being recognised by the Learning and Skills Council as one of the top providers for disadvantaged young people and adults in the region.

My role at Gateshead MBC was a varied one, which took me from a casual staff member to full time over the 5 years that I worked there.  For the last two years I was also studying full time for my sports studies degree at Northumbria University.

During my time at GMBC I organised the summer sports schools, recruited staff, booked coaches, booked facilities etc etc.  I then moved onto seeking funding via Single Regeneration Budget and developing and managing the Sports Development Outreach Programmes across Gateshead.  

The programme ended up being mainstreamed into central budget and ended up with a staff cohort of 15. During my last two years I was part of the events team seconded to the Local Organising Committee for the World Veteran Athletics Championships and the Athletics European Cup, which entailed recruiting and training the stadium volunteers, securing sponsorship, organising internal staff and communicating with International Athletic Federations and Governing Bodies of sport.  

I then during the games managed all of the activity, events and facilities at Jarrow Stadium for the whole time of the event. This was a major personal achievement for me which proved to me that I could handle the stress of complex projects and budgets, along with dealing with and supporting a wide variety of stakeholders from not just the uk but internationally.

Own Business, which I started because I had been made redundant from my engineering job.  I also had Sports One, which was a personal training and coaching business, which was not at that time earning me enough to make a living alone so I started the printing business.  I sold both of these businesses to start and fund my education through college and also University. I initially franchised Sports One, until it was purchased by the biggest franchisee in London.

I served my apprenticeship as a moulder / coremaker in the foundry and then moved my way up the ladder. In the last year of my time in the foundry I was a systems engineer working all over the world troubleshooting for General Electric and John Brown Engineering who were our main customers. This involved, identifying issues with our products and then tracing back to where and how the issues had occurred, and then ensuring an appropriate solution was negotiated.  Like most engineering in the North East, it was bitten by the recession in the late 80’s.  I was made redundant from this job.