Mark Dawe

Chief Executive, Association of Employment and Learning Providers

Mark was appointed as the Chief Executive of AELP over 3 years ago. He is on the Board of WorldSkills UK as well as a range of government boards such as the ESFA Advisory Board, IfA Quality Alliance and the DfE’s Apprenticeship Stakeholder Board.

Most recently, Mark Dawe was the Chief Executive of OCR, the exam board, for 5 years. He has been a governor of primary schools, secondary and a further education college. Mark has a wealth of experience across a broad spectrum in the education field. Prior to his role at OCR, Mark was Principal of Oaklands FE College (and AELP Board Director) having been Deputy Director, FE Strategy at the Department of Education and Skills and before that as Deputy Director, Adult Basic Skills Strategy Unit after joining the department in 2003.

Having read Economics at Cambridge University before qualifying as a chartered accountant at KPMG, Mark joined Canterbury College, becoming Head of Corporate Services in 1994. In 2000, he helped set up eGS, an e-procurement provider to the public sector. He gets his grit and resilience from supporting Plymouth Argyle and Boreham Wood, cycling and four school and university aged children.

Anna Morrison CBE

Director and Founder of Amazing Apprenticeships

Anna Morrison CBE is the Director and owner of Amazing Apprenticeships, an organisation that supports the National Apprenticeship Service and Department for Education to promote apprenticeship awareness in every secondary school and college across England.

Amazing Apprenticeships create and publish a range of inspirational and interactive resources to support teachers, students and parents to understand the range of apprenticeships available and to help them to feel confident and informed about the next steps to take.

Anna has worked in the sector for 21 years and was recognised for her service to apprenticeships in the recent Queen’s Birthday Honours. She also manages the Beds, Herts and Milton Keynes Provider Network and holds positions on the Hertfordshire LEP Skills Board and Careers Hubs in Luton and Hertfordshire.

Jennifer Coupland

Director, Professional and Technical Education, ESFA

Jennifer Coupland took up post as DfE’s Director of Professional & Technical Education in October 2016. Her previous role was Acting Chief Executive of the Standards and Testing Agency where she oversaw the Agency’s work on primary school assessment policy and operational delivery, covering the maternity leave of the current Chief Executive.

Prior to that Jennifer spent three years as the Deputy Director of the joint DfE/BIS Apprenticeships Unit where she was responsible for apprenticeship reform including creating new apprenticeship trailblazers, degree apprenticeships and the public sector apprenticeship duty. Before this, Jennifer was the Deputy Director in the Department for Education responsible for the early stages of Traineeships development as well as Raising the Participation Age, careers and NEET policy.

Jennifer began her career in the Employment Service where she ran a benefit section in a local office and delivered a range of programmes to support long term unemployed people into work. Since moving to central Government Jennifer has worked on a number of policy areas including: benefits, schools and post-16 education. Jennifer is married to Dan, who runs his own small business, and together they have three daughters.

John Cope

Head of Education & Skills Policy, CBI

John is the CBI’s Head of Education & Skills, leading the CBI’s work across education, from the early years through to primary, secondary, as well as colleges, universities, and lifelong learning. Alongside education & skills, John chairs the CBI’s LGBT+ Network. Originally from the Midlands, most of John’s career prior to the CBI was spent in policy and communications, working on issues affecting social justice, education, young people. This includes advising three past education ministers, and being a founding director of the Education Policy Institute. Outside of work, John is a governor of a special educational needs school.

Jose Lopes

Head of Business Engagement, WMCA

Jose Lopes is an engineering technical skills and learning expert, with 30 years’ private sector experience. Joining Land Rover as a graduate, he delivered a series of product engineering projects, which culminated in him becoming Jaguar Land Rover’s head of technical excellence, delivering the engineering skills development necessary to support JLR’s corporate growth.

Currently as head of business engagement for the West Midlands Combined Authority, he is charged with the effective delivery of its key productivity, skills and employment objectives, by securing regional employer buy-in. This will drive an ever more prosperous West Midlands for those who live and work in the region.

As well as a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute, Jose is a Chartered Engineer, Fellow of both the Institution of Engineering & Technology and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and named by Manufacturer Magazine in Top 100 2016, for inspiring leadership and a driver for cultural change. Jose was appointed Industrial Fellow, Warwick Manufacturing Group, by Professor Lord Bhattacharyya. A trustee of WMG Academy for Young Engineers University Technical College, and non-executive director of the engineering skills organisation SEMTA. Industrial training champion for the Faraday Institute, the UK’s independent institute for electrochemical energy storage science & technology.

Sharon Blyfield

Head of Early Careers & HR Business Partner, The Coca-Cola Company

Sharon has been in the business for 24 years in a variety of functions and roles. She joined the business as part of the Cadbury Schweppes Finance head office team, then made the transition across to Coca-Cola and Schweppes and moved into the world of commercial field sales.

Her third (and she says hopefully final!) career was a move into HR covering all elements of Supply Chain and now heading up the Coca-Cola European Partners Early Careers agenda for Great Britain.

Having spent the majority of her career developing young talent at the start of their careers, her current remit fits perfectly with her passion to create opportunities to support the next generation of young leaders in industry.

Nick Stone

Finance Director and Head of People, S&G Response

A law graduate who is a founder of S&G Response, a business processing organisation operating mainly in the motor insurance market. S&G Response prides itself on combining cutting edge technology with the right people to deliver outstanding service.

Nick has operated in his role for over 10 years and has a responsibility for Finance, HR, Risk & Compliance and Learning & Development. He is truly passionate about ensuring each and every employee has the opportunity to learn and grow as part of their role in the business, with the aim of creating leaders of the future. S&G Response have a successful track record of bringing in and developing apprentices. Over the last 3 years, over 15 apprentices have been successfully promoted into different roles within the business.

Anna Morrison CBE

Director and Founder of Amazing Apprenticeships

Anna Morrison CBE is the Director and owner of Amazing Apprenticeships, an organisation that supports the National Apprenticeship Service and Department for Education to promote apprenticeship awareness in every secondary school and college across England.

Amazing Apprenticeships create and publish a range of inspirational and interactive resources to support teachers, students and parents to understand the range of apprenticeships available and to help them to feel confident and informed about the next steps to take.

Anna has worked in the sector for 21 years and was recognised for her service to apprenticeships in the recent Queen’s Birthday Honours. She also manages the Beds, Herts and Milton Keynes Provider Network and holds positions on the Hertfordshire LEP Skills Board and Careers Hubs in Luton and Hertfordshire.

Keith Smith

Director of Apprenticeships, ESFA

Keith Smith has worked in the skills system for more than 20 years. He has run local skills programmes, ranging from local jobclubs to assessing apprentices.

In recent years he has been leading the development and delivery of the national further education and apprenticeship funding systems. Keith has been a governor of a number schools and university technology colleges.

Patrick Craven

Director, Strategic Partnerships, Stakeholder Policy and Tenders, City & Guilds UK

Patrick has over 30 years experience in the field of accreditation, assessment design and educational technology. From the design of educational resources with MESU/NCET and BECTa to running of post-sales technology support departments with Apple Computer, his career has always addressed the fusion of education, skills development and assessment technologies.

For the last 20 years this work has focussed on the specific field of learning and assessment research and development linked to Government Policy and national accreditation programmes. This spanned work with the RSA Examinations Board, OCR Examinations, Cambridge Assessment Group and now he leads on Strategic Partnerships, Stakeholder Policy and Bids/Tendering work for City & Guilds. This role considers the growing impact of Policy and new technologies on the learning and assessment industry. It also identifies initiatives to enable City & Guilds to develop and extend the range and quality of learning and assessment products and services they offer.

Throughout this period he has remained committed to the notion of ‘fit for purpose’ assessment based on evidence-based research. Patrick currently sits on the Board of the e-Assessment Association, UK eAssessment Advisory Group, Joint Council for Qualifications and is an advisory member of the Federation of Awarding Bodies Board. He sits on the planning committee for the European Association of Test Publishers Conference and is a member of the Society of Leadership Fellows, St Georges House Windsor.

Michael Carney

Policy Engagement and Communications Lead, National Retraining Scheme Division, Department for Education

Michael Carney has been a policy lead at the Department for Education since the summer of 2018. Michael leads on policy engagement and communications on the National Retraining Scheme, alongside advising ministers on the National Retraining Partnership. Michael has been a civil servant since 2015 in a range of roles in a number of departments, including working on a review of how the practical driving test should be delivered in Department for Transport, NATO Defence spend policy in Ministry of Defence and overseeing the HMRC Building our Future programme in Liverpool.