Accreditation Committee Members

 

Accreditation Committee Convenor

  Professor John Simmons - FRSE, FIMeeh, Fife, PhD (Cantab), BSc (B'ham)

Professor Simmons' background is in mechanical and manufacturing engineering and in engineering design management in industry, where he worked for two major UK businesses.

Subsequently, he joined Durham University before moving to Heriot-Watt University as Professor of Mechanical Engineering in 1992.  Subsequent appointments at Heriot-Watt included periods as Head of Department, Dean of Engineering, Vice Principal and until February 2007, Acting Principal and Vice Chancellor.

Following retirement from Heriot-Watt in 2007, John Simmons has a portfolio of professional commitments including consultancy work with one of the Rolls-Royce group of companies and several consultancies within the Scottish Higher Education sector.  He has been a member of the SQA Board since 2005.

Accreditation Committee, Vice Convenor

Gary Waddell

Gary is the Learning, Skills and Employability Adviser with the Scottish Prison Service with responsibility for developing and coordinating the opportunities available to offenders while in custody.  Prior to his current appointment, he was a senior project manager with Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh and Lothian working on national training initiatives.  Gary was previously a lecturer at Stevenson College for ten years while working part-time as a Verifier for Scotvec.  He was appointed as the first full-time Principal Verifier for training and development awards from 1996 to 1998. 
Gary is a member of SQA Advisory Council.

Committee Members

John Mitchell

John is member of the SQA Board and also a member of Learning Teaching Scotland.

John became a member of the Council of the Headteachers’ Association of Scotland in 1986, served as Convener of the Education Committee and became its President in 1995-96.  He was a member of one of the Higher Still implementation Groups.  He became a Complaints Convener with Greater Glasgow Health Board in 1997 and a trustee of Lanarkshire Acute Hospitals Trust until its dissolution in 2004.  He joined the Board of Learning and Teaching Scotland in 2000, as a member of the Advisory Council of Learning and Teaching in Scotland. 

Martin Hunter

Martin represents the Federation of Small Businesses on the Accreditation Committee.  Martin retired from a management position at BT in December 2000, after 26 years with the company.  He is currently the owner of MH Training and recruitment and CEO of HH Contact Services Ltd, contact centre in Prestwick.

Martin is involved with a number of committees: he is as a member of the FSB Scottish Policy Committee, Chairman of FSB Ayrshire, Vice Chairman of West of Scotland Regional FSB Committee, member of the Ayrshire Tourism Partnership and also of the Ayrshire Economic Forum.

Valerie Mann

Val originally joined Bank of Scotland, in the Mortgage Department in 1983.  After a move to England for a short period, Val returned to Edinburgh in 1989 to begin a career as a Scottish Law Accountant working in a series of large Edinburgh law firms.  This was followed by a move to the Legal Office of the NHS in Scotland to run the Law Accountants and IT department in 1993.

Val joined the HBOS Group as the Resource Manager for Intelligent Finance, IT Department in 2001 - she then joined Group Programmes in 2006.   Val has been working closely with E-Skills UK, the Sector Skills Council for IT during her time in HBOS.  Val piloted the Go4IT initiative which is designed to encourage young females into a career in IT.

Steve Brodie

Steve joined Rolls-Royce in 1989 as an Apprentice Engineer.   Since then he has completed various positions within the company and is currently responsible for the delivery of Modern Apprenticeships at Rolls-Royce's new facility at Inchinnan, Renfrewshire.   Steve is committed to self development.  He has achieved National Certificates in Engineering, Higher National Certificates, a Diploma in Management and a BA in Human Resources.  He is also a member of the Careers Scotland - College School Collaboration National Steering Group and the Scottish Committee for LifeLong Learning in Engineering.

Paul Campbell

Paul began his career as an apprentice in the water industry in 1993 where he worked in water industry operations sector for seven years before he moved on to become a technical skills trainer and SVQ  Assessor in 2000. Paul then moved into Organisational Development (OD) in 2002 as an internal OD Consultant within Scottish Water.

Paul also represents the Scottish Water Industry on the Water Industry Skills Steering Group (WISSG) with responsibilities for identifying national skills priorities, projects and policy arrangements for the UK Water Industry.

Alasdair Smith

Alasdair is the Scotland and Northern Ireland Director, Skillset; Chair, Skills for Business Network, Scotland.

Alasdair joined Skillset in March 2003. He is responsible for delivery of Skillset’s strategy throughout Scotland and Northern Ireland, working closely with all partners, stakeholders and agencies to encourage the delivery of informed training and vocational education provision so that the UK’s audio visual industries maintain and enhance their creativity, productivity and competitiveness. He has also chaired the Skills for Business Network in Scotland since October 2006.

He developed an early career in sales and marketing, before taking a year out in 1992 to study full-time towards an MBA at Strathclyde University. Following a brief period with the NHS in Scotland, Alasdair spent eight years working first with SCOTVEC then SQA where he developed his understanding and knowledge of education and skills issues in Scotland.

Alasdair also spent five years on the board of Glasgow Media Access Centre (GMAC), Scotland’s largest open-access film and video making facility, including nearly three years as Chairman. 

Keith Quinn 

Keith began his career as a Social Worker with Fife Regional Council and later moved on to a post in Social Work Staff Development where he was responsible fro Practice Teaching and the development of the SVQ Assessment centre.  In addition to Keith’s full time job, he also trained and undertook SVQ external verification for the joint CCETSW/SQA Awarding Body.  Keith then moved on to work in Higher Education

Bob McGonigle

Bob McGonigle is a Skills Development Manager with Microsoft. He has worked with that organisation since 1993, first forming the European Microsoft Windows Academic Centre which created the first web server for the windows platform. From 1998, he was responsible for introduction of training partnership programmes into Universities, Colleges and Schools in the UK and Eire. He began the ground breaking partnership with the SQA in 2003 that made Microsoft professional courses available to Scottish colleges and led to the creation of the SQA’s DIVA initiative. He is currently working with Learndirect Scotland on their Industry Alliance for Jobs project.

Outside work, he is a keen archer and a Director of the UK governing body.

 

George Nicoll

George Nicoll is the Driver Training Manager with Robert Wiseman Dairies.  Prior to joining the company, Robert was a Driving Examiner with the Driving Standards Agency. 

Robert joined the company in 1997 and is responsible for the training of all drivers (circa 2000), learner drivers, learner LGV and defensive driver training. Robert holds an HNC in Forensic Road Accident Investigation and is a DSA approved instructor for cars and LGVs.  He is also a DIAmond advanced driving examiner and is a qualified A1 Assessor.

 

Karen Adams

Karen Adams is an Educational Projects Manager with NHS Education for Scotland (NES) and has worked in educational development for adults for more than 25 years. She began her career as a language teacher and teacher educator, working in the UK, Eastern Europe and North Africa, before moving into educational management and consultancy. Prior to joining NES in 2006, Karen was Head of Professional Development for MRS, the UK’s professional body for market, social and opinion researchers. During this time, she was responsible for establishing MRS’s suite of professional qualifications for researchers, and developing the organisation’s training portfolio. In her current role, Karen leads on the development of an Education Framework for Administrative & Support Services for NHSScotland. She is also involved in NES’s work to help embed the Scottish Credit & Qualifications Framework (SCQF) within learning for NHSScotland staff.

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