IMI announces changes within its Skills Development team
The Institute of the Motor Industry today (12 April 2010) announced that Stirling Wood is to become the company's new Head of Skills Development. The current post holder, Steve Scofield moves internally to become head of the newly created Accreditation Academy.
For the past 3 years, Stirling has run his own consultancy business working mainly for public sector organisations providing advice and guidance on educational, strategic and operational policy. Previous to this, he was a Strategic Manager at the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) and responsible for the development and provision of the vocational qualification strategy and policy for five UK economic sectors.
The structure changes arise from the IMI's requirement to increase its Senior Management Team by one to provide a dedicated resource to continuously develop and implement the strategy for the ATA and new Automotive Management Accreditation (AMA) routes. One of the main objectives of the new Accreditation Academy will be to offer training and accreditation of assessors, up- skilling of teachers, trainers and assessors and will support the required CPD for any individual registered on the new Professional Register currently in development.
Chief Operating Officer Linda Stansfield said:
"I am delighted that Stirling will be joining us as the new Head of Skills Development. We have recently undertaken a review of resource and team structure to ensure the IMI has the capacity and capability to deliver the 2010/2011 business objectives and the 3 year strategic plan. Placing skills development and the recognition of ethical competence at the heart of the retail motor industry remains a key objective for the IMI and I'm confident that the changes we have now made to the management team will help us to achieve this aim."
Stirling and his team will have responsibility for the core Sector Skills Council (SSC) deliverables of Standards, Qualifications and Labour Market Intelligence (research). There is an increasing demand for SSCs to commit resource to work collaboratively on cross sector projects such as the low carbon agenda and during the next 12-18 months the Sector Qualifications Reform programme.