Eleanor has been involved in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) policy and development throughout her career, starting in Product Development at the City & Guilds of London Institute. During this time she gained an MSc in Continuing Education and Training from City University, London. She moved to work at the Sector Skills Council e-Skills UK as the development of the 14-19 Specialised Diplomas began, and moved again as a consultant to the then-regulator, the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Authority where she organised, trained and led the teams writing the assessment criteria for those qualifications. Over time, she became increasingly aware of the tensions surrounding the employer role in UK technical and vocational education and training, and this inspired her PhD in Education at the UCL Institute of Education on the topic ‘'What are the major factors behind the apparent policy failure in relation to the employer role in 14-19 education and training?' Towards the end of her studies, she joined Pearson UK and worked as a Senior Researcher and the Head of Efficacy in the UK. This brought together her business and research knowledge, enabling her to support the design of better products and services through a mixture of clear product definition, and market, product and implementation research.
Throughout her career, Eleanor has worked successfully as a consultant, which has enabled her to lead and support many diverse education projects, from industry skills needs’ analyses, to documenting and supporting business change processes, and most recently, teaching online for a number of universities in China on the subject of vocational reform in the UK, for example.
Since completing her PhD, Eleanor has expanded her activities to include the writing and delivery of conference papers and articles on technical and vocational education. She is an active reviewer for the Higher Education, Skills and Work-based Learning journal, and a founder member, and webinar chair, for the Special Interest Group in Assessment Cultures for AEA-Europe.
