Welcome to the
Education Training Partnership

Karen Salisbury – Operations Manager

Karen is our Operations Manager and is responsible for the day-to-day running of our business. Karen has been involved as a Training Officer/Mentor since 2009 and specialises in working with young people with mental health issues. Karen is a qualified counsellor and led a pastoral team at a large secondary school prior to working in our team. Karen also works with some of our ethnic minority young people.    Karen is our greater Manchester Talent Match Coach and she supports people with significant barriers to learning. Karen is Level 4 qualified and is also the SENCO coordinator for the organisation.

Victoria Ellison – Administrator

Vicki has worked in the Administration department since 2014. Vicki is our School and Employer Liason Officer. Vicki’s reponsibility is to ensure that our paperwork is produced to a high standard and Vicki also carries out our audits and spot checks on paperwork. She is responsible for ensuring our clients attend placements and courses and manages that side of the business. Vicki also acts as Simon Foster’s Personal Assistant, managing his diary and appointments.

Lynn Clark – Training and Support Co-ordinator

Lynn has worked at the Education Training Partnership since 2015 as Training and Support Co-Ordinator. She is a qualified Tutor in Personal, Social and Vocational Development, IAG, Drugs and Alcohol. Lynn provides pastoral support and sessions / workshops for learners to overcome any barriers to their learning and maximise their development. Lynn is also responsible for curriculum development, internal moderation, quality procedures and administration. Lynn works closely with Connexions, Job Centre Plus and other outside agencies to ensure learners receive training and support to suit their individual needs.

Darren Parkinson – Manager of Post 16 provision

After leaving Full Time College for the first Fifteen years of my career I was a Chef in a local Hotel. I progressed up to the level of Master Chef was responsible for the training and development of supply Chefs for the other Eleven Hotels in the group, including the opening of the new build Holiday Inn in Bolton.

After a year with the City of Salford as Contracts Manager, which in involved the opening of the Lowry Centre, I moved into Training and Assessing at the North Lancs Training Group as Scheme Co-ordinater for Hospitality Which lead to a Grade One ALI centre for excellence. After growing the centre from 10 to 500 learners over a Twelve year period and achieving employee of the year I decided to start my own company.

Since 2010 I have worked in partnership with Education Training to deliver quality provision to the young people across Bolton on several different contracts relating to NEET reduction and extended work placements.

During this time I have also kept my teaching up to date with Part Time Lecturing at Bolton, Accrington and Nelson & Colne Colleges

Heather Ogden- Projects Manager

Heather has worked at the Education Training Partnership since 2012 and is an Associate member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development and the Mentoring and Befriending Foundation. She is a former Chief Executive of Bolton and Bury Education Business Partnership with a significant amount of experience in this field.  She is responsible for all the Mentor training for the company and delivers workshops to mentors in the education sector. Heather also is a licensed trainer and facilitates the delivery of the  ‘Enterprise Game’ which all local authorities use to deliver enterprise activities in schools. Heather will work with the pupils in particular those who are interested in setting up their own businesses and becoming self employed. Heather specialises in working with key stage 5 pupils who are LLDD and has built up a database of supportive employers for this difficult to place client group.

John Rainford – IT and Health & Safety Specialist

John is our IT and Health & Safety Specialist. John is responsible for the checking of our sponsor companies to ensure they are a safe place for a young person to work in. John previously worked for a large training agency based in Greater Manchester as the Health and Safety Manager and was responsible for the Health and Safety of 70 full time staff and over 700 pupils.  John is responsible for all pupil’s Health and Safety whilst they are out on a work experience. John is NEBOSH qualified and provides all our sponsor companies with free health and safety advice to ensure they are legally compliant.

Leo’s job is, quite possibly, the most important one of all.

His main responsibility is waking the Managing Director in the mornings. At 6.30am precisely, each and every morning, he jumps on Simon Foster’s chest, meowing until he submits, getting out of bed to feed him. He takes his role very seriously, keeping a strict schedule that involves waking him consistently through weekends, as well as week days, in order to maintain routine.

We are working closely with him at this time to correct this poor weekend behaviour.