My most recent role before launching the consultancy was as Director of one of the country’s longest established Consortia of Further Education colleges where I was at the heart of the agenda of modernisation of colleges to meet the skills needs of the 21st Century. I was responsible for leading the Consortium’s work on:
- Modernising the curriculum to meet new criteria for the 14-19 Diplomas;
- Attracting “difficult-to-reach” 16-19 year-olds;
- Re-shaping college operations to met employer needs and prepare for the National Employer Training Programme (Train to Gain);
- Operating a college-led Employer Engagement “brokerage” service;
- Developing and running leadership programmes for the next generation of college leaders;
- Developing new mechanisms to enable college members to work together to improve the quality of their provision and success rates;
- Co-ordinating the sub-regional network of managers of CoVEs (Centres of Vocational Excellence);
- Attracting and managing more than £12 million of external funding from European and other sources.
Prior to working in the FE sector I gained extensive experience working in the wider regeneration field. My work for two different local authorities brought me to the forefront of the social enterprise movement, and I was Chair of the national forum, Community Enterprise UK, for two years. In this role I provided advice to Government ministers on the role of social enterprises in regeneration policy. Later I managed a national voluntary organisation working with housing associations to engage them in urban and rural regeneration, and then I joined a consultancy company for two years during which time I developed a number of innovative vehicles to manage local regeneration initiatives, and worked closely with a property development company to manage community involvement in the regeneration of a number of prominent, landmark buildings.
EXPERTISE
Particular elements of the expertise I can bring to bear are:
- Funding bids – particularly for EU funds of all kinds, including Objectives 1, 2 & 3, Equal, Leonardo, Socrates, Gundtvig;
- Change management
- Employer Engagement Strategies
- Management Development
- Local skills strategies
- Area based regeneration strategies
- Corporate Social responsibility strategies
- Extended schools operations
- Feasibility Studies
- Social enterprise development
- Temporary management services
- Partnership building
- Evaluations
Contact
John Popham
Managing Director
John Popham Consulting
Grove House
51 Greenhead Road
Huddersfield
HD1 4ER
telephone +44 (0) 1484 506151
email. john[dot]popham[at]johpopham[dot]com
More information here