With over 30 years of teaching experience, Steve joins the WorldSkills UK Centre of Excellence on part-time secondment from Gower College Swansea where he will continue in his role as Curriculum Leader in Electronics Engineering.
Working with the Centre’s High-Performance Skills Coaches, Steve will be responsible for helping to drive the Centre of Excellence’s work in Wales. He will support teaching staff at FE Colleges to embed world-class competencies and standards in teaching, learning and assessment.
Steve began his career as an engineering apprentice with his family’s audio-visual business. However, he always had a passion for teaching and after a period of combining his work with a part-time teaching role at Gower College Swansea, Steven made the decision to move to teaching full time and completed a Bachelor of Arts in Education and a Certificate of Education at the University of Wales, Newport. He has received national recognition as a lecturer; having being highly commended by City and Guilds for his contribution to teaching engineering, was named BTEC Tutor of the Year and was most recently recognised at the Annual Apprenticeship Conference in partnership with FE Week for his outstanding contribution to the development of apprenticeships.
Throughout his teaching career, Steve has maintained close links with industry, believing that there needs to be closer collaboration to ensure employer’s training requirements are being met. He is the Chairman of Home Electrical Electronic Servicing Training Forum (HEEST) and in this role he has helped shape the new trailblazer apprenticeships delivered at Gower College Swansea. It was through his work with industry partners that he was introduced to WorldSkills UK Competitions.
Following a number of years’ involvement in the Inspiring Skills Excellence in Wales programme, which enters young apprentices and students into skills competitions, Steven was invited to become a judge for the WorldSkills UK national competitions in engineering. This led to him being appointed as the WorldSkills UK Training Manager for Industrial Electronics in 2017.
Under his leadership, the UK reached the world class standard in Industrial Electronics at WorldSkills Kazan in 2019. Steven will remain as Training Manager as he continues to train and mentor apprentices for the next WorldSkills Competition which will take place in Shanghai, China in 2022.
Commenting on his appointment, Steve said: “In my role of college lecturer, I have always looked at innovative ways to raise standards and boost the aspirations of my students. That is why I wanted to be part of the WorldSkills UK Centre of Excellence as I have seen the impact that embedding world-class standards into training can have on a young person’s development and future career and I would like all young people across Wales to have that opportunity.”
