National Career Guidance Show (NCGS) North - Leeds 2024 - Speakers

Amanda Cheney, National SEND Education & Career Development Manager, Talentino Careers

Amanda joined Talentino in January 2023 as their National SEND Education & Career Development Manager. With over 30 years of experience, she previously led initiatives at a highly rated special school, excelling in enterprise, employability, and work-related learning for over a decade. Amanda's impact includes creating innovative programmes to create positive outcomes for students with additional needs. Amanda draws from her extensive background and experience to offer insights on inclusive education and building impactful career pathways for all, and supporting staff in a range of settings to implement high-quality careers strategies and programmes..

Eleanor Eyre, Head of Careers, EngineeringUK

Eleanor joined EngineeringUK in 2013 as a qualified careers adviser with over 10 years’ experience working in secondary schools across London. Previous roles include Learning Mentor and Connexions Personal Adviser. At EngineeringUK Eleanor leads on work across the organisation to encourage more young people from all backgrounds to be informed, inspired and progress into engineering and technology.

Dr Mark Frederick, Project Leader, UK & Europe Citizenship Team, Barclays LifeSkills

Mark joined Barclays in 2012 and Barclays LifeSkills in 2015. He was first responsible for programme operations, and over the years assumed a variety of roles within the team, including strategy and content development for resources aimed at adults, reporting and assurance. He has also led an intensive intervention initiative working with local organisations to build skills and confidence in young people and adults across different locations within the UK. Mark is passionate about helping others and the importance of transferable skills for employment, he has also previously worked as an engineer, pianist and as an English teacher in Spain for one and a half years.

Caroline Green, Founder, The Talent Cycle

Caroline is a Career Development Expert, RCDP, Learning and Development professional and the CDI Private Sector Career Coach/Consultant of the Year 2023. In her role as Founder of The Talent Cycle she acts as a Careers Sector Evangelist to help raise awareness and engagement with the sector, through speaking, writing and appearing in national media. Having been used as an example of best practice by the NfER for her work in schools, she advises individuals, organisations, and educational establishments on how to raise the profile of the all-important careers work they do.

Rebecca Healy, Careers Inspiration Manager, EngineeringUK

Rebecca joined EngineeringUK in 2022 with a career history in Learning and Development roles in a range of industries with her most recent having been, Head of Careers for a Multi-Academy Trust. As Careers Inspiration Manager Rebecca works a wide variety of stakeholders to develop careers resources to inspire young people from all backgrounds about careers in Engineering and Technology.

Dr Jonathan Hopwood-Lewis, Lead Enterprise Coordinator, West Yorkshire Combined Authority

With twenty-years teaching experience across Secondary, FE, and Primary, Dr Jonathan Hopwood-Lewis has studied the effects of careers education on a generation of young people across West Yorkshire.  Specialising in STEM, Jonathan also worked as a Careers Adviser at an FE college before managing STEM Ambassadors in North Yorkshire.  Jonathan currently sits in regional government with the School Partnerships Team at the West Yorkshire Combined Authority under the auspices of Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire.  In this role, Jonathan is uniquely placed to connect the Authority’s yearly LMI report with those who can best put it into practice.

Paul Kinney, Founder and CEO, Peoplehawk

A former Advisory Partner at PwC, Paul is an accomplished entrepreneur in building people-centric businesses. During his career he has been instrumental in creating thousands of employment opportunities for young people across the UK and N. America. His unwavering passion for empowering emerging talent is inspiring. Paul has now channelled his expertise into PeopleHawk, a ground breaking career mobility platform that empowers young people to showcase their skills and potential, bridging the gap between aspiration and achievement. Over 10,000 people from 19 countries join the platform every month, transforming the way educators and employers fast-track career outcomes for students.

Kim Newman, Technical Education Programme Manager, Career Development Institute

Kim joined the Career Development Institute (CDI) in November 2023 as their technical education programme manager, leading on a three year project funded by the Gatsby Foundation which seeks to raise awareness of technical education pathways. With over 25 years’ experience as a careers professional, Kim has worked in schools, colleges and universities and more recently in supporting teachers and careers staff to meet the Gatsby Benchmarks. Kim is passionate about supporting careers professionals to keep up to date with the ever-changing world of education..

More speakers to be announced soon!