NFEC - Key Members

KEY MEMBERS OF NFEC

Ray Kitchin

Ray Kitchin - NFEC Director and Chair of the Board (Curriculum Initiatives)

Ray began training in 1967 and went through a JIB Apprenticeship in the Electrical Contracting Industry in Sheffield, working mainly on industrial contracts in and around the steel industry. After seven years of part-time study, to HNC level, he left industry to go to University followed that by Full Time Teacher Training.

In 1978 he took up his first teaching post at Oxford College of FE followed by further promoted appointments at North Birmingham College and Sutton Coldfield College where he currently Deputy Director of the Faculty of Technology.

The Faculty was awarded CoVE status for Integrated Manufacturing Technology in 2003, and Ray also assumed the role of CoVE Manager. They were awarded an Ofsted Grade 1 in 2006 and Sutton Coldfield became one of the first colleges in the country to be awarded the Training Quality Standard - for Employer Engagement and Vocational Excellence in Engineering - when this Standard was launched nationally in 2008.

Ray has been closely involved in NFEC activities since moving to Sutton Coldfield College and he is currently a member of the LSCs West Midlands Specialist Provider Network for Manufacturing Engineering and he is a member of the Birmingham and Solihull LA Steering Group for the Engineering Diploma.

He joined the NFEC Board in 2008 with over 30 years experience in Engineering Education and Training in FE. You can contact Ray on rkitchin@mbc.ac.uk.

Bob Clarke - NFEC Director (Business Operations)

After eighteen years in Further and Higher Education, at all levels from Lecturer 1 to Head of Faculty, Bob left 'the service' in the spring of 1997 to provide much-needed support for NFEC.

One of the 'group of six' who developed NFEC from scratch in 1992, Bob was NFEC's first Vice Chair, its second Chair and was an Honorary Executive Member for a total of six years.

Bob Clarke

Bob's responsibilities for NFEC subsequently included the conferences, newsletters, regional liaison and national action.

From Autumn 2000 he developed and managed the highly-acclaimed joint BACH/NFEC dissemination of good practice project in construction and engineering - a role that was considerably extended for 2001-2002 and again in 2002-2003.

Appointed as NFEC's Chief Executive Officer, with effect from 1 July 2003, Bob then had operational responsibility for all of NFEC's activities, including the web site development and maintenance role.

Bob also developed and managed Critical Friends. This service emerged from the work of the Dissemination Project and provided in-Centre support for Colleges and Other Providers, in Engineering, Construction and the related Technologies. The Critical Friends service is still available to your Centre today.

Bob retired from the post of Chief Executive on 31 July 2005 after setting up the new National Forum of Engineering Centres (NFEC Ltd) and transferring to it all of the assets of the National Forum for Engineering in Colleges. On his retirement Bob was awarded Life Membership of NFEC, at the National Conference in Coventry, in December 2005.

Recent re-structuring and re-focussing within NFEC has seen Bob appointed to the Board of Directors - with responsibility for all of NFEC's Business Operations.

You can contact Bob directly on 01249 447 021, or mailto:bobclarke@nfec.org.uk.

Alan Gray

Alan Gray - NFEC Director (National Liaison & HE Progression)

Alan is a past Vice Chair of NFEC and also a past Chair of the NFEC London Region.

He retired from his post of Director of Engineering and Construction at Havering College of Further & Higher Education in 2002, having spent twenty two years in lecturing and managing in Education.

He has been a key contributor to NFEC and others, as a consultant on the NFEC/BACH Dissemination of Good Practice Project, the LSDA CoVE

programme and the EAL Technical Certificate and Engineering Diploma projects.
Alan remained an NFEC Consultant until 2009, providing support for the regions, most recently in London and the South East.

Also over that period he has helped his old college in the development of its Foundation and B.Eng. degree programmes, and In between he has taught National Certificate Electronics in Oman , Ascension Island and St. Helena - to students working on the BBC World Service transmitters and for Cable and Wireless.

Alan continues to advise the Electrical and Electronic Servicing Training Council on all of its curriculum matters.

You can contact Alan on alanwrittle1fm@talktalk.net

Warwick Hall - NFEC Director (HE Progression)

Warwick trained as a Mechanical Engineer and worked in the civil, construction and access equipment industries before moving into the automotive sector. There he had a career in Human Resource Management, in which he focused on employee relations, organisational development and people resourcing, development and training.

Warwick has a particular interest in preparing individuals for the ever changing

Warwick Hall

competitive challenges of our global workplace, developing flexible work practices and increasing people’s skills, experience and capability - especially the importance of the continuous development of people in work.

During his career he has had close involvement with Further and Higher Education, linked to industrial strategic planning on national and regional skills needs. As part of this he has been closely involved in the development of Foundation degrees since their inception.

Now Director of Regional Strategy for Foundation Degree Forward (fdf), Warwick works closely with further and higher education institutions, employers and regional bodies in the development and promotion of vocational routes to higher education.

Prior to joining fdf, Warwick was an HR Manager with Land Rover, Rover and BMW and Programme Manager with the Automotive Academy . He has worked in the UK, Europe and the Middle East.

You can contact Warwick on W.Hall@fdf.ac.uk

John Lockey - NFEC Director (Post-19 & Industrial Development)

An Electrical and Electronic Engineer with experience in a range of industrial roles (electronic design, contracts engineering, marketing, and managing an electrical company in Carlisle), John joined North Tyneside College as an L1 on a full time basis in 1985.

Promotion took him to Senior Lecturer, in charge of Schools, Industrial Liaison and Marketing, but his role within the college also included Head of Food, Leisure, Administration and Tourism - and for seven years he was Director of Engineering and Science, during which time he managed the development of a new Mechatronics centre. This included a clean room, a

John Lockey

surface mount PCB manufacturing centre, as well as general engineering facilities.

Having been North East Regional Group Chair for over three years, John was elected NFEC Honorary Vice Chair in December 2002 and succeeded to NFEC Chair in 2004.

An opportunity arose for John to be seconded back into industry - working with the North of England Microelectronics Institute as a Regional Training and Development Co-ordinator. This role took him to France, Germany and the States, enabling him to create new partnerships and see educational cutting edge industrial developments.

On the change from The National Forum for Engineering in Colleges to The National Forum of Engineering Centres, John became Chair of the new company Board - a position he held until December 2009.

He is now back in Industry, working at the Marine Design Centre in Newcastle.

John can be contacted at john.lockey@marinedesigncentre.com


Bob Millington	Bob Millington- NFEC Director (Regional and National Liaison)
	Following an Apprenticeship and 9 years in the engineering industry, Bob began a career in the FE Sector. Of his 33 years in FE, he spent 22 of them as a member of college Executive Teams. He became Head of Engineering at Broxtowe College , Nottingham, in 1984 and Head of Faculty of Automotive and Mechanical Engineering at Tile Hill College in Coventry , in 1991. In 1997, Bob was appointed Assistant Principal (Programme and Business Development) at the College, with special responsibility for Engineering.

With the merger of Coventry Technical College and Tile Hill College in 2002, to form City College Coventry, Bob became Assistant Principal – Business Development and Dean of Technologies. That role included responsibility for Engineering, Vehicle Maintenance, Construction and Computing. In 2006, Bob retired from FE and was awarded the MBE for “Services to FE and Engineering Training”. He then set up his own consultancy in training and education in Engineering. Customers have included Coventry University and Castle College in Nottingham , where he worked with Toyota Manufacturing UK to ensure the right balance of curriculum for their new Academy. Thoroughly involved with NFEC from its launch in June 1992, Bob was a member of the Executive Committee from 1994 until his retirement form FE. He remains the only person to have held all of the Honorary Officer roles of the National Forum of Engineering in Colleges. In recognition of his support fo the Forum, Bob was created its second Life Member in 2005. He has continued to support NFEC by running the National Conferences and the Midlands Regional Seminars. As part of the latter activity he helped the Region create a thoroughly vibrant Curriculum Development Network. . He has been re-appointed to the Board of NFEC Ltd, as Director with special responsibility for Regional and National Liaison. You can contact him on: bob.millington@btinternet.com

Elaine Hyde - General Administrator

Elaine Hyde - NFEC General Administrator

Elaine joined NFEC in March 2006 as our General Administrator. She is employed five days per week, Monday to Friday, and is available to answer and deal with enquiries between the times of 9.00 am and 1.00 pm..

Among a considerable range of administrative duties, Elaine provides support for NFEC conferences and meetings, she maintains a database to enable effective communications with Members and she is also closely involved with Credit Monitoring and Control.

Whatever the enquiry, Elaine will be able to deal with it - either directly, or by getting you in contact with the best person to help.

Elaine Hyde

Contact Elaine on admin@nfec.org.uk. or by phone on 07759 901 229, between 9.00am and 1.00pm, Monday to Friday

NFEC Regional Representatives

North West

North East

Midlands

Steve Jones

Steve's first industrial exploits were spent working as a PLC Support Engineer during the commissioning of the THORP plant in Sellafield. After this,he spent a number of years studying for his doctorate in optical fibre modelling, which was sponsored by BICC Cables.

Following a move to Manchester, Steve gained a position as an Electronics Design Engineer at Ferranti Technologies, producing designs for the Aviation, Rail and Defence industries. During the DOTCOM boom, he worked as an Optical Design Engineer with Nortel Networks in Harlow, where he was partr of a team of engineers that designed and developed their flag-ship LH5000 long-haul optical telecommunications multiplexors and demultiplexors.

Following the DOTCOM crash a short while later, Steve enjoyed a year-long round the world trip spending his new-found redundancy money.

Upon returning to the UK, Steve was appointed as a lecturer in engineering at Kingston College in London. In his words 'it allowed him to re-engage with the the 9 to 5 and also the 5 to 9'! Since that move, Steve has never looked back. Following nearly four years at Kingston, he moved to Telford College of Arts and Technology, to take up the role of Head of School of Engineering . Three years on, Steve still enjoys the daily challenges offered by Engineering education and training in the FE sector.

You can contact Steve on Steve.Jones@tcat.ac.uk

East of England

London & South East

Mike Bristow

Mike Bristow - Director of the Faculty of Technology, Lambeth College

Mike spent seven years as an electronics technician, working for Professor Hans Eysenckin the Institute of Psychiatry at University of London. He studied at Brixton College, completing a Full Technological Certificate at Croydon College in 1974 and also has a Certificate in Education and a BA Hons Degree.

Mike taught part-time at Brixton College prior to his full-time appointment in1974. There he was promoted to Franchise Manager responsible for a range of extended degrees. With South Bank University,he developed Access to Higher Education engineering courses

He progressed to Lambeth College as their Programme Manager in the Faculty of Science and Technology, with overall responsibility for engineering prior to becoming their Head of School for Engineering.

His team have developed a broad offer incorporating motorcycle, electrical and security installation, electronics(including medical electronics),computer aided engineering, PC maintenance and network engineering, broadcast technology, sound engineering and audio electronics.

OfSTED has complimented the School on its ‘outstanding leadership and management’ and ‘providing the students with the relevant skills to meet industry needs’. In 2007 the School won the London Education Partnership Award for ‘excellent professional practice in curriculum and student support in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM); they were runners up in 2008 and highly commended in 2009 for partnership development of the new diplomas in engineering.

Mike was promoted to his current position, which carries responsibility for engineering, construction, adult media and hair and beauty, in 2007. He is also on the governing body of the Lambeth Academy.

Mike can be contacted on mbristow@lambethcollege.ac.uk.

South West