Federation of Awarding Bodies chief executive Tom Bewick has resigned, FE Week can reveal.
The former Labour councillor turned Brexit party parliamentary candidate has led the membership organisation, which represents 120 awarding bodies and apprenticeship end-point assessment organisations, for five years.
Bewick will remain in post until the end of September. The federation’s board is working on plans to find their next leader.
From October 1, Bewick will join Ecctis, an international qualifications body, as chief executive.
Kirstie Donnelly and Alan Woods, chief executives of City and Guilds and VTCT respectively, and co-chairs of the FAB board said: “We thank Tom for five successful years leading FAB. He’s built a strong foundation for FAB to continue representing its members during these important times in policy for skills, apprenticeships and technical education.
“On behalf of the board and the membership of FAB, we thank Tom for his committed service and we wish him well for the future.”
The skills and enterprise expert is co-founder of Franklin Apprenticeships in the US, and founded the Transatlantic Apprenticeship Exchange Forum in 2015 to promote opportunities for UK training providers in the US.
He led the International Skills Standards Organisation Ltd from 2011 to 2015, and prior to that was chief executive of Enterprise UK, a former government quango, from 2010 to 2011.
Other government roles include adviser to the minister for adult skills in the early 2000s.
He was a Labour councillor at Brighton and Hove City Council from May 2015 until he resigned in January 2017.
He left the Labour Party in 2019 to run as the Brexit Party’s candidate for Dagenham and Rainham at the 2019 general election.
In July last year Bewick was made a visiting professor of skills and workforce policy at Staffordshire University.
Richard Hastings, the chair of Ecctis’ employee ownership trust board, said: “Our new CEO will progress our ambitious plans to invest in and grow our skills recognition and verification services and our global insights work, developing the business within the context of an employee-owned trust.”
Your thoughts