Principal Lecturer in Employability
I was appointed Principal Lecturer for Employability in 2009, having commenced my teaching career at the University of Sunderland as a Visiting Lecturer in 1997, before joining full-time as a Senior Lecturer in 2005.
Prior to working in higher education, I have had a 25 year career in financial services with Barclays plc, occupying roles including: retail banking team management, driving the performance of a team of 30 sales and service staff; client relationship manager to a portfolio of 100 SMEs; regional learning consultant in a corporate university.
My expertise is broad based and draws upon 37 years professional practice in the commercial sector and higher education (HE) and includes: management accounting, financial management, corporate responsibility, professional development, business and career coaching, sales and sales management and work-based learning.
I am a member of the Higher Education Academy.
Teaching and supervision
My research informs module content and teaching on a variety of courses and modules including:
- Personal and Professional Development, a Stage 2 core module for full-time students
- Extending Professional Competence at Stage 3 for part-time work-based learning students in partnership with the National Police College
- A range of Corporate Leadership modules at Postgraduate Certificate Level with students drawn from various public and private sector organisations including currently Nissan, NHS, and Gentoo.
Research
My research interest is graduate employability and how this can be driven through enhancement of undergraduate and postgraduate curricula. My current research project is exploring and understanding undergraduate motivation to engage with employability enhancing activities.
My research conceptualises employability as personal and professional identity, exploring what makes a graduate “employable” and the factors which motive students to engage with what the HE sector and employers believe to be an important consideration in the development of a successful graduate career.
My expertise is broad based and draws upon 36 years professional practice in the commercial sector and HE and includes: management accounting, financial management, corporate responsibility, professional development, business and career coaching, sales and sales management, work-based learning.
