Jackie Moores has started in her role as principal of Tameside College following the retirement of Peter Ryder after more than six years in the top job.
Ms Moores joins the Greater Manchester college with more than a decade of teaching roles under her belt from Salford City College, most recently as deputy principal.
Ms Moores said: “I am looking forward to working with the college governors, staff and learners and taking the college to the next stage in its journey to provide an outstanding offer to learners, employers and local schools.”
John Lyne, chair of governors, paid tribute to the work of Mr Ryder.
“Peter is an inspirational leader who has raised the profile of Tameside College across the borough and Greater Manchester,” said Mr Lynne.
“Despite the challenges of funding cuts in the FE sector he has built a college that is one of the most admired in the FE sector. His legacy will be enjoyed by students for years to come.”
Meanwhile, David Higham has joined Tresham College as its new vice principal responsible for business development and customer experience.
Bringing experience in both IT and business development roles at St Helens College and Learndirect, Mr Higham aims to increase the Kettering college’s commercial offering and develop apprenticeships and adult learning provision.
He said: “I’m really excited to have joined Tresham. With the state of the art facilities and such a skilled and motivated team, the potential is limitless.
“Commercial training and apprenticeships are a massive growth area that needs to be realised through working alongside employers of all sizes to ensure that we, as a college, meet their business priorities through developing their existing and potential employees with the skills they need now and for the future.
“We need to ensure that we are demand led and not supply driven, and it is very important that we focus on getting the basics around this right first.”
And Carolyn Barker, head of governance and regulation at awarding organisation EAL has been elected to the Federation of Awarding Bodies (FAB) board as a director.
Ms Barker joined EAL in 2006, working her way through a number of roles in governance prior to taking up the position as regulatory responsible officer and head of governance and regulation.
“We have the opportunity to work more closely with employers, regulators and other government departments and agencies to ensure sufficiently robust qualifications and skills development are achieved through high quality vocational education and training which remains at the heart of the skills agenda,” said Ms Barker.
And Stratford-upon-Avon MP Nadhim Zahawi has been given the job of Prime Minister David Cameron’s new apprenticeships adviser.
He replaces Richard Harrington, who stepped down in September to become Syrian Refugees Minister. Conservative Mr Zahawi will also be co-chair of the Apprenticeship Delivery Board along with National Apprenticeship Ambassadors Network (NAAN) chair David Meller.
“I’m excited to be part of the government’s revolutionary work on apprenticeships, drawing on my previous experience as an entrepreneur to ensure that the new qualifications meet the needs of businesses and provide excellent life-long skills to those who take them,” he said.
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