The Training Foundation announces new regional management structure
In a move that mirrors this month’s announcement by The Learning and Skills Council, The Training Foundation has announced its new regional management structure for England. These individuals will work with the LSC's new Regional Directors and a wide range of other partners as part of The Training Foundation mission to empower everyone involved in training and developing others.
Adrian Snook, Director of Corporate Development for The Training Foundation explained: "The appointment of four new Regional Managers this week represents the culmination of an extensive selection and recruitment process that has taken over four months to complete. We received well over 100 applications for these pivotal roles and the successful appointees represent some of the most experienced individuals in the field of Learning and Skills in the UK."
"Our new Regional Managers will work with an extremely wide range of partners to help deliver the Government's national agenda for skills in a regional context by empowering everyone involved in training and developing others."
"In addition to their local focus each new Regional Manager has a national sector specialism and is charged with developing our strategy and strategic relationships within that sector."
Frank Porter has taken up the role of Regional Manager, South West of England and will be based in Dorset. Prior to joining The Training Foundation Frank served as a Police Officer for 30 years retiring in 1999 as a Chief Inspector in personnel and training. Snook commented: "Frank brings his valuable expertise within law enforcement and emergency services training to his new role with The Training Foundation. In addition to his regional role he is also charged with progressing strategy and key strategic relationships with stakeholders such as HMIC, ACPO, Centrex, The Fire Service, The Ambulance Service and Home Office.”
Stephen Russell has taken up the role of Regional Manager, Midlands of England and will be based in Sutton based in in Selby, North Yorkshire: "Lindy has extensive experience gained in previous roles for major law firms and financial institutions. This experience will be Coldfield. "The Training Foundation mission involves raising the quality of learning and skills training provision", Snook pointed out in welcoming Stephen to the organisation. "This is an essential pre-requisite for the effective pursuit of business excellence. Steve brings nine years of valuable expertise gained within business performance improvement, quality and excellence at Lloyds Register Quality Assurance to The Training Foundation. In addition to his regional role he will also be charged with progressing strategy and key strategic relationships with stakeholders such as BSI the DTI, International Standards Organisation and Regional Development Agencies".
Snook went on to announce that Lindy Wainwright has taken up the role of Regional Manager, North East of England, invaluable as she will manage our national initiative with the legal profession and within the financial services sector. In addition to her regional role she is also charged with progressing our strategy and key strategic relationships with stakeholders such as the FSA, Financial Services Sector Skills Council, Chartered Insurance Institute and the Law Society."
In concluding it was announced that The Training Foundation Operations Director Les Hobbs, has taken up the additional role of Regional Manager, South East of England, based in Richmond on Thames. Snook commented, "Given the economic importance of the South East Region and its role as the seat of central government it is entirely appropriate that a Director of The Training Foundation should fulfil this regional management role. In light of his educational background Les will manage our strategy and strategic relationships with the DfES and Becta in addition to his new role as Regional Manager."
Notes for Editors:
High resolution JPEG photographs of all four regional managers are available on request.
About Frank Porter
Prior to joining The Training Foundation Frank served as a Police Officer for 30 years retiring in 1999 as a Chief Inspector in personnel and training. Since that date he has been running his own successful business as a Training and Management consultant in which capacity Frank has worked on a number of major projects as a consultant and training manager for a number of police authorities, law enforcement agencies and the private sector.
About Stephen Russell
Steve has over 18 years experience in the identification, design, delivery and evaluation of training & development. Working initially in the public sector, Steve has spent the last 9 years providing specialist training and consultancy in the areas of business performance improvement and quality/excellence. During this period he has provided support for private and public sector organisations mainly in the UK but with some work in Europe. In addition to his training role, Steve has served for the last 7 years as a senior assessor on both the UK and Midlands Excellence Awards and played a leading role in the establishment of a Midland Region best practice network based on the European Excellence Model.
About Lindy Wainwright
Lindy has been involved in education and training for 14 years. Following a move from the further education sector as a senior lecturer into training in 1995, Lindy has specialised in training, training management, project management and training consultancy, travelling extensively throughout the UK, Europe and the Far East, developing, co-ordinating and managing projects for a number of large blue chip organisations. For the past four years she has worked as a training consultant with two of the top international Law firms based in the city. She has carried out extensive research into teaching, training and learning, and focused on the impact of learning styles on e-learning when she completed her masters degree with Sheffield University in 2002.
About Les Hobbs
Les has nearly 30 years' experience in the education and training sector. After spending 6 years as a teacher of Mathematics and Computer Studies in secondary schools, Les ventured into commercial IT training. Following two years in the classroom, he was quickly promoted to Training Director and was instrumental in making his company one of the largest, specialist IT training companies in the UK.
In 1995 Les formed his own training consultancy, devising and implementing training strategies for his corporate clients which involved blended solutions, using both classroom and technology based learning. Since then, in a number of different roles, first with the Institute and then as one of the founding Directors of The Training Foundation, he has been responsible for establishing and implementing The Training Foundation's certified programmes for classroom trainers and the Certified e-Learning Professional programme.