Roles and responsibilities:

• Day to day programme management of the companies digital offering
• Developing new business for the company to provide high quality resources for schools, children and families
• Researching and development of new ideas for marketing to children and their parents and presenting to company executives and senior management
• Requirements gathering and development of detailed specifications for web and paper-based products and project management through the whole project life cycle. Managing outsourcing of development elements of digital projects to suppliers in South Africa
• Management of designers, print companies and researchers as required
• ICT and educational consultant to the company
• Writing tenders, PQQ documents and proposals

Achievements:

• Design and delivery of websites for the BBC Trust, Acamar films and KI.
• Developing management documents for the digital department including requirements gathering template, functional specification template, change logs and bug tracker.
• Wrote winning tenders for the above projects

• 1996-1999- Albany College, Hendon London, Head of Geography.

An educational marketing company

Role and responsibilities:

• Developing new business for the company to provide high quality educational resources for schools mainly sponsored by the CSR budgets of large companies.
• Researching and developing new ideas for marketing to school age children and their parents and presenting to company executives and senior management.
• Researching the educational market to identify potential new business opportunities.
• Running focus groups with both educationalists and students (e.g. focus groups to determine young people’s fears regarding financial matters) to provide key research for developing new business proposals.
• Requirements gathering and developing detailed specifications for web and paper-based products and project management through the whole project life cycle
• Supporting clients in developing enhancements to existing products developed by EPR, based on market feedback and web statistics.
• Day to day management of the company including project budgeting and management of staff.
• Managing outsourced projects through liaison with developers, designers and graphic artists as well as printers
• Evaluation of projects to ensure best practice is used in future initiatives. This includes reports to clients based on qualitative and quantitative research

Achievements:

• Design and development of multiple projects for high profile clients including National Grid, European Parliament, 3M, Weetabix and Asda
• Increased turnover from £120K to £520K in one year
• Developing management documents for the digital department including requirements gathering template, functional specification template, change logs and bug tracker.
• Wrote winning tenders for the above projects

Government contractor for education


Role and responsibilities:

• Working with Regional Advisors and Local Authority Advisors in face-to-face meetings to determine requirements for a number of national educational projects based on the National Strategies. These projects are about workforce development and teacher’s continual professional development.
• Determining the correct blend of learning, and specifying products ready for the tender process (for out sourced products) or the e-learning development team. This involves the production of Business Requirements and Functional Specification documentation which was is passed on for development.
• Developed a number of document templates for the Capita e-learning team to help improve internal systems.
• Projects include web sites, forums, pod casts, CD and DVD ROMs and written materials.
• Preparing tender documents for outsourcing of work.

Achievements:

• Kicked off 5 projects by determining requirements, writing functional specifications and delivering to senior project managers
• Helped to design Shakespeare podcasts for 14-16years olds

The Sector Skills Council for ICT and Telecommunications

Role and responsibilities:

• Business Strategist within the Business Services team. Responsible for overview of all E-skills products and services. SWOT analysis of all E-skills products. I was tasked to complete an audit of funding streams for all products.
• Working on the new diploma team, particularly on e-learning materials for work-based learning elements of the diploma framework. Requirements gathering and project management of this project.
• Managing the relationship with the external supplier for this project re budget, milestones, delivery, training materials, user acceptance testing etc
• Supporting other teams on educational issues including design of products for usability, readability etc

Achievements:

• Delivered audit document to senior strategy team
• Assisted on development of strategy for the new ICT diploma

E-learning and school based IT systems- LSC contractor.

Promotion to E-Learning Strategy Manager to this rapidly growing E-learning company, answering directly to the Managing Director.


Role and responsibilities:


• E-learning Strategy Consultant and New Business Analyst for a rapidly growing E-learning company for 2 years working on the full life cycle of public sector (LSC) projects
• Supporting all teams in the company with regards educational strategy including, research, content development, usability issues, accessibility for all students, educational proof reading. Ensuring all products fit into government (LSC) e-learning strategy
• Assisting the directors in the roll out of our three major web-based products to the UK regions.
• Undertaking Research and Development as designated by the directors, often in schools, colleges, local industry and more recently the Prison and probation service. This included prototyping of paper-based and web-based systems
• An excellent track record of writing successful tender documents to generate new business mainly within the public sector. These projects included primary and secondary research conducted in the South West. The two major projects were the development of a web based Apprenticeship brokerage tool and the development of a quiz based learning plan tool for young offenders and adult offenders in custodial sentences. Both projects included primary research and trialing of products in the field.
• Writing strategy documents based on the above research for the Learning and Skills Council to fund the development of new IT-based products such as Apprenticeships online, WEX (Work experience online) and Plan-it (A tool which generates individual learning plans)
• Client facing skills – attending meetings and presenting proposals to senior managers within the Learning and Skills Council at local and regional level
• Contributing to senior management meetings within the company
• Writing content for web-based systems
• Writing business requirements and functional specifications for new products
• Managing projects to conclusion and delivery
• Training teachers and support staff in the use of systems
• Writing support documentation for teachers and support staff

I set up and developed the New Business department within S-cool (Customer Requirements and Liaison- CRL) developing it into a dynamic team of 6. The department was responsible for developing new business coming into the company directly from clients or through the directors. The team produces business requirements, functional specification documentation, and then owns the products as they go through the development, testing and implementation phases. The team is also responsible for client accounts after delivery of the product including customer support and the development of new products.

Role and responsibilities:

• New business team leader managing a team of six internet business analysts. Included setting tasks and time management, to ensure strict deadlines, as designated by the project managers, are met. This role also included staff appraisals and attending team leaders meetings. Attending operational and strategy meetings with the directors.
• Responsible for acquiring new business through tenders and particularly through proposals to the LSC West of England and LSC Hampshire.
• Product owner and account manager for 12 of S-cools web-based products
• Business Analyst- Determining go/no go proposals for proposed systems. Writing high quality business requirements and functional specifications for web-based software utilizing use cases (UML) and web flow diagrams
• Managing projects from initial requirements through to completion
• Managing accounts with clients of major products including support and technical issues
• Member of product delivery teams as required
• Attending conferences and other events
• Some educational proof reading as required
• Research and development including primary and secondary methods and the prototyping of new products
• Writing of educational content

Achievements (Both roles described above):

• Set up and ran a team of six analysts for the new business department
• Wrote strategy documents for the LSC which led to major wins e.g. Apprenticeship system (£250K)
• Helped design and evolve the companies three flagship systems Plan-it, WEX online and Apprenticeships Online.

Role and responsibilities

• Responsible for writing three GCSE course companions for CD Rom (Geography, Physics and IT). Responsible for the conversion of all text to HTML for loading on to the software platform
• Requirements gathering and business analysis to ensure the product was fit for use.
• Managing the project from inception to roll out
• Graphic design and Web design management
• Managing external writers and software suppliers
• Researching, testing and prototyping software in schools

Head of Geography, Head of House.

Secondary Geography, PSHE, Maths