John is director of his own consultancy company specialising in strategy and quality in further and higher education and skills, working with organisations in the public and private sector. He works on a part time basis for AELP and is involved in a range of sector wide initiatives. He is also a member of the National Improvement Partnership Board. Immediately prior to this he was Director of Further Education in the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) where he was responsible for advising ministers on further education and lifelong learning policy. Previously he was Director of Improvement in DIUS. During his earlier career he had extensive experience of inspection and quality improvement work, designing inspection regimes in the ALI and heading up Ofsted’s post-16 and learning and skills work. He has also held senior positions in education business partnerships, local authorities, and a Chamber of Commerce Training and Enterprise, having originally started out as a teacher.