Richard joined Deloitte three and a half years ago after six years consulting experience with KPMG. Prior to entering consultancy Richard worked as a teacher, lecturer and college manager in schools and colleges for 23 years. He has published widely in education internationally and worked as a college inspector and examiner for two vocational awarding bodies. He co-led a programme of qualification reform in the Sultanate of Oman during his time in the FE sector.

In 2010 he accepted an invitation from the Under-Secretary of State for 14-19 Reform to join the taskforce enquiring into the work of the careers professions. He has completed a study for the Education Employers Taskforce looking at the role of employers in careers education information advice and guidance. This involved over 100 interviews and 500+ survey responses from students, teachers and businesses.

Richard’s focus has been on the delivery of large literacy and numeracy projects. He led the Functional Skills Support Programme for the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) which trained over 23,000 teachers and lecturers, developed a programme website and published a range of support material. Other programmes he has led include the Frontline workers Project, establishing twelve local learning adult referral networks for literacy and numeracy. He led the piloting of the ICT Skills for Life Curriculum with over 100 varied post-16 providers supporting basic skills learners. Working in the sector Richard was the UK’s first head of 14-19 Education at one of England’s largest colleges. The changes he led helped to raise participation in the City of Manchester by 3% in a single year through a series of innovative outreach initiatives with 11-16 schools. Richard is a secondary school governor.