ESSENTIAL SKILLS - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Non - Executive Director
- Non - Executive Director / Co - Founder & CEO, Tandem
Prior to joining the team in 2020, Alicia was a secondary science teacher in the South Wales Valleys. Here, she completed her Masters in Educational Leadership before looking for opportunities to make a real difference in the world of skill development for young people.
At Skills Builder, Alicia's role sits in the Organisations Team. Within organisations, she leads on STEM, Youth, Volunteering/Social Action and Outdoors/Adventure work, managing programmes and growing our reach in these areas.
Job Titles:
- Lead Associate for Parents and Carers
As a teacher and senior leader, with many years experience in school, Alison developed a passion for bringing skills education to the forefront for all children and young people. She saw in her own teaching the positive effect a skills-focussed approach has on all learners: building confidence, improving well-being, broadening horizons and boosting their learning potential.
Upon joining The Skills Builder Partnership in 2014 she relished the opportunity to develop support materials and training for teachers to assist them in providing an inspiring, relevant, essential-skills rich curriculum for their learners.
She now leads our work focussing on helping parents and carers to build their child's essential skills at home.
Balfour Beatty Vinci is a leading international infrastructure group providing innovative and efficient services that underpin our daily lives and support our communities. One of their most recognised projects was building the Channel Tunnel.
Job Titles:
- Interim Impact Organisations Manager
Having taught Modern Languages and English to learners of all ages in the UK and abroad, Bella draws upon a broad background across mainstream and alternative education settings. With a passion for social mobility and bringing learning to life, alongside her teaching Bella set up an education and networking start-up to support more inclusive access to careers in film.
After joining the Skills Builder Education team in 2018, Bella now leads our Impact Organisation networks in Sports, Arts and Culture. Bella also works with our employer partners to maximise the impact of their youth outreach programmes. Bella's favourite essential skill is Creativity; she loves being inspired by our partners' impact and working collaboratively to design innovative solutions and resources.
Bella is currently leading the Impact Organisations team while Maryam Darby is on maternity leave.
Bethan is a Biology graduate and former Secondary Science School teacher. Completing the Teach First Leadership Development Programme reinforced her strong values of equality and opportunities for all. She continued with her own personal development by completing a Masters in Educational Leadership which inspired her to have a wider impact in her setting.
Bethan gained appreciation for the importance of essential skills whilst teaching in the South Wales Valleys and this led to her joining the Skills Builder Partnership. She is now an Education Associate supporting Schools in Wales and England to deliver outstanding skills education.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Advisor / Chair, NCS Trust
Brewin Dolphin is one of the UK's leading providers of personalised, discretionary wealth management services, offering investment management and financial planning services to investors and intermediaries. With origins dating back to the mid-18th century, they were one of the founding firms of the London Stock Exchange. They have 28 offices throughout the UK & Ireland and have a wealth of experience dealing with investment markets. [updated 20160606 by BD themselves via SA]
Buro Happold is an international, integrated engineering consultancy operating in 23 locations worldwide, with over 50 partners and 1,800 employees including some of the world's leading consulting engineers. For 40 years they've been building their reputation for delivering creative, value-led building and city solutions for an ever changing world.
Job Titles:
- Senior Education Associate
Charlotte joined the teaching profession in 2013, having spent a year in Brussels, working in the Directorate Generale for Education at the European Commission. Charlotte trained with Teach First as an MFL teacher and then later became Assistant Principal in Middlesbrough and then subsequently in Hebburn.
Believing in the importance of building skills, and having developed community projects to support with this previously, Charlotte joined the Skills Builder Partnership in 2018 as the Education Associate for the North East. Charlotte enjoys supporting schools across the North East to embed the Skills Builder approach into their schools and working with students in new situations.
Job Titles:
- Interim Head of School Programmes
With a degree in Italian and music, Chris's career started in media, organising BAFTA ceremonies and working in TV production. Then changing course with a desire to make a difference, he trained to become a primary class teacher and phase leader in Hackney.
Chris joined Enabling Enterprise after having seen the impact of the projects in his own school. Chris leads our work in North London, and in the East of England and loves running projects in schools and businesses which help prepare young people for success in the real world, while still having lots of fun along the way!
Job Titles:
- Regional Manager North of England
Claire always wanted to be a teacher, and share her love of history. Following her degree, Claire taught for 10 years in Oldham, taking on a variety of roles including accreditation as an Advanced Skills Teacher, Lead Practitioner and as Specialist Leader in Education specialising in Initial Teacher Education.
She brings this passion for learning and for developing enterprise skills to her role at Enabling Enterprise in her role as Regional Manager for the North West.
Connor is a Medical Physiology graduate that taught science across primary, secondary, and SEN provisions within South Wales. He soon appreciated the fundamental value of developing essential skills alongside the basic skills of literacy, numeracy and digital skills, to underpin learner success in education and wider life.
As a current Education Associate, he works with establishments across the UK to embed essential skills into their curriculum, ensuring that their learners build the knowledge, experiences and aspirations to succeed. His responsibilities include programme delivery, curriculum development and employer engagement across a range of sectors.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Advisor / Vice Patron, Business in the Community
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Advisor / Director of Education Programme, Gatsby Foundation
Eleanor joined the Skills Builder Partnership in 2021 and is responsible for managing all external and internal communications across the organisation, ensuring the promotion of our mission.
After working and volunteering in the non-profit sector across a range of organisations, Eleanor is most interested in advocating for social mobility and equality in education and the workplace. She holds a BA in Chinese Studies from the University of Oxford.
Job Titles:
- Senior Associate ( Educators & Employers )
Emma's teaching career at a school on the South Coast exposed her to the real lack of skills among her learners. Whilst teaching Maths at a Secondary level, she saw first-hand how an absence of skills such as Problem Solving, Listening and Teamwork led to barriers to learning and ambition for those she taught.
Emma now works in both the Employer and Education teams at the Partnership, supporting schools and colleges to deliver outstanding essential skills education as well as supporting employer partners to embed the framework into their outreach programmes, recruitment and performance review processes. She also led the research and co-wrote our report on teachers' perspectives on essential skills.
Job Titles:
- Employer Programmes Manager
Prior to joining the Skills Builder Partnership in 2017, Emma was a Secondary History teacher in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. Initially working as an Education Associate, Emma passionately promoted and supported the building of essential skills in schools across England before taking the lead on expanding our work in Further and Higher Education settings.
Now Emma is responsible for managing our employer programmes, supporting businesses to effectively utilise and develop the essential skills in their outreach, recruitment, leadership and development of employees across a wide range of sectors.
Erica leads the External Affairs work at the Skills Builder Partnership. Throughout her career she has worked to build relationships with Westminster and Whitehall and beyond. Erica has a passion for bringing about change in government policy that improves education and skills.
Erica joined Skills Builder Partnership in 2021. Before that she was in the environmental sector working in external affairs at The National Trust and CPRE the countryside charity.
Evelyn leads the Education Team at Skills Builder Partnership. This is our brilliant team of Associates and Senior Associates who support the schools and colleges on our programmes to embed best practice in essential skills education. Evelyn is responsible for all our education outreach work and the impact of our programmes in education settings.
Evelyn joined Skills Builder Partnership back in 2016 as an Education Associate, working directly with our schools and colleges across East London. Before that, Evelyn was a Science teacher in the North East of England. She continues to be a passionate advocate for STEM teaching & learning.
Frazer started his career as a primary school teacher in West Yorkshire, teaching across Key Stages 1 and 2. As a newly-qualified teacher, he enjoyed utilising a skills-focused approach that provided his class with opportunities to grow and succeed alongside the core curriculum.
After a few years teaching, Frazer moved into the third sector to lead the planning and delivery of curriculum programmes for a football club community organisation on the south coast of England. It was here that Frazer developed a relationship with Skills Builder, working with our Organisations team to embed the essential skills within a number of projects that targeted disadvantaged and hard-to-reach pupils across Primary, Secondary and Further Education institutions.
As an Education Associate, Frazer now works with educators and impact organisations across the UK, helping them to provide a structure for essential skill development in both formal and informal settings.
Job Titles:
- Partnerships and Schools Associate
Helen graduated with a degree in English and Philosophy from the University of Leeds and subsequently gained her teaching qualification through her place on Teach First. Helen joined the Skills Builder team after seven years working at a secondary school in the London Borough of Brent, teaching pupils across all secondary phases. It is during this experience as an English classroom teacher, and later on senior leadership, that the importance of teaching the essential skills became apparent in order to truly equip young people for success.
Helen currently works as an Education Associate supporting schools and colleges in creating a strategy for effective skill implementation that is tailored to their educational setting.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Advisor / CEO, British Exploring
Job Titles:
- Lead Associate for International
Since starting his teaching career, James has had a growing interest in practical, skills-based learning. As a Head of Music in South London, James worked to raise the aspirations and opportunities for young people through Music, working closely with the English National Opera, Voice in a Million and School Ground Sounds.
James joined the Skills Builder Partnership in 2016, to continue developing skills-based learning across the curriculum and make young people excited about skills. He currently works with schools, colleges and impact organisations across the UK and internationally.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Advisor / Director, the Leadership Partnership
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Advisor / Deputy CEO, Careers & Enterprise Company
Job Titles:
- Senior Education Associate
Judith started her career teaching Maths in a Leeds Middle School and has experience of class teaching and senior leadership, across a variety of settings including primary and secondary, state and independent, day and boarding schools.
After a few years as a teacher, Judith took a break from the profession to train as a Chartered Accountant. It was during these years in finance that she recognised that high performance in the workplace was often dependent upon someone's transferable ‘essential' skills rather than their academic level.
When she returned to the classroom, Judith sought every opportunity to teach these skills, often in an extra-curricular context. Judith then joined the Skills Builder Partnership in 2019 as a way of combining her teaching, senior leadership and commercial experience with a passion for developing the essential skills in young people.
Job Titles:
- Senior Associate ( Product )
Job Titles:
- Interim Head of School Network
- Organisations Manager
Prior to working at Enabling Enterprise, Maryam was a Primary School Teacher for 7 years in a South London School. She discovered a passion for project-driven learning teaching her students about the media industry with the Lambeth CLC, The Southbank Centre and the BFI.
This inspired Maryam to work for Enabling Enterprise, where she now manages the South London & South East region.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Advisor / CEO, EY Foundation
McMillan Williams Solicitors is one of the largest solicitor firms in the south of England. Established for almost 30 years with branches in London, Croydon, the South East and South West of England. They undertake a broad range of work including Probate and Professional Negligence, Family Law, Actions Against the Police and Criminal Law.
MHA MacIntyre Hudson is an established and successful independent Chartered Accountancy practice in the West Midlands. From their office in the heart of Birmingham's business district they provide accountancy and business advisory services to a wide range of companies and organisations. They have built up a portfolio of clients that range across many sectors including manufacturing, property, law and not for profit.
Mott MacDonald is an employee-owned management, engineering and development consultancy working around the world.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Advisor / Director of Education and Employability, Business in the Community
Oliver Wyman is an international management consultancy company, helping businesses to solve their biggest challenges. Most recently, this has included the re-branding of Starbucks and McDonald's.
Job Titles:
- Finance
- Operations Assistant
Job Titles:
- Non - Executive Director
- Non - Executive Director / Co - Founder & Director, Energy Aspects
Job Titles:
- Regional Manager Midlands & South West
Richard joined Enabling Enterprise in 2017 and leads our work across the Midlands and South West England. His passion for education and business innovation spans over 25 years of working with children and young people as a teacher and curriculum advisory in primary, secondary and initial teacher training settings.
Richard has headed music education and cultural service organisations in the West Midlands and East of England regions and has led business development and transformation programmes across a range of education, heritage and cultural service organisations.
Job Titles:
- Chief Operating Officer
- Head of Operations and Strategy
Robert is responsible for the strategic direction and running of Enabling Enterprise as an organisation. As treasurer of an alternative provision school in Hackney he came to see the importance of educational outcomes, particularly for those from less privileged backgrounds.
Prior to Enabling Enterprise, Robert worked in Public Sector Strategy and Operations at KPMG as well as at Social Finance.
Job Titles:
- Non - Executive Director
- Non - Executive Director / CEO, Fair Education Alliance
Simon joined Enabling Enterprise in September 2013 from the National Council for Voluntary Organisations. Simon is a parent governor of Furzedown Primary School, where he works with governors, staff and parents to ensure that the school continues to improve and that all children enjoy a stimulating learning environment.
Simon leads on Enabling Enterprise's links with the businesses and employers who support our work. Simon is also responsible for Enabling Enterprise's fundraising to ensure that our plans to reach 120,000 children per year by 2019 are achieved.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Advisor / Chair, Rolls Royce
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Advisor / Gatsby Foundation
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Advisor / Chair, FutureDotNow
Job Titles:
- CEO
- Founder
- Founder & CEO / Skills Builder Partnership
- Founder and CEO of Enabling Enterprise, Explains How He Is Trying to Reduce the Skills Gap. There Is Something Fundamental Missing.
Ravenscroft has not only done his research - the sources in his book are wide and varied - but he also wears his learning lightly. The result is a very...
Tom Ravenscroft, Founder and CEO of Enabling Enterprise, explains how he is trying to reduce the skills gap. There is something fundamental missing...
Job Titles:
- Lead Associate for Inclusion
Job Titles:
- Strategy & Operations Manager