Mike Morris, Chairman

A First Class Honours graduate, in Mining Engineering, from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Mike completed the NCB’s Graduate Training Scheme and enjoyed (his words) various jobs such as Shot Firer, Deputy, Overman, Technical Assistant, Personnel Manager and Undermanager. He left British Coal in 1988, having ‘learned a lot about people, production and pumps’, and joined St Helens College as a Lecturer in Engineering.

Rapid promotion soon took him to become Head of the College’s Engineering Centre and then Director of the College of Technology at St Helens College. This included all the Construction and Engineering trades, based in new accommodation on land reclaimed from a disused glass factory site. During this time, Mike was also Chairman of the National Federation of Engineering Centres (NFEC) which strives to improve the quality of engineering education and training throughout the UK.

In 2004 he moved to a cross college role - Director for Skills and has recently been seconded to the Learning and Skills Council to lead the Northwest Business Colleges Programme. This is aimed at transforming all the colleges in the Northwest of England by helping them to become more demand led and employer focussed.

Allan Murray, Chief Executive

With almost 25 years of experience related to the glass and construction sectors, his experiences include contributing to the standards development process (including NOS development), Project Management, conducting the qualified Assessor, Internal Verifier and External Verifier roles related to the implementation of glass and engineering related national vocational qualifications and heading up the nationally approved Awarding Body, the Glass Qualifications Authority (GQA) since 1999.

He is a member of various glass and construction sector related national groups linked to the development and implementation of nationally recognised qualifications.

His original training and experience, which led to his M Sc qualification and Chartered Engineer status, was in Engineering.

Mick Clayton, Technical Officer

With nearly 20 years experience in the glass industry and an MBA, Mick joined GQA in 2005 to expand the Awarding Body function based in Sheffield. Mick’s role encompasses external verification and support of GQA Approved Centres and their EV’s, regulatory authority and sector skills issues and GQA’s work on ‘e’ issues. Mick’s work on e-assessment whilst with GQA saw him recognised by the Industry when presented with a GTL award for Innovation in Learning and Assessment in 2007.

Contact Mick on any issues connected with External Verification, qualification submissions and ‘e’ activities.

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Caroline Kershaw, Office Manager

Caroline is the Office Manager at GQA. In addition to managing the office, Caroline is also responsible for all aspects of invoicing and accounts control.

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Amanda Jennings, Database Controller

Amanda Jennings (nee Roberts) has total responsibility for the GQA qualification database containing information and data relating to the thousands of individuals who have registered on, or achieved, GQA qualifications, etc.

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Peter Horsley, External Auditor

Peter has a wealth of sector quality experience and is the independent GQA BS EN ISO 9001:2000 Quality Representative. He also Chairs the GQA Quality Audit Committee.

Denis Goodwin, External Verifier

Denis Goodwin is a GQA External Verifier with over twenty years experience in Training and Development. He has worked as a GQA External Verifier for over 10 Years.

His previous occupational sector was Engineering Production.

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Tom Steele, External Verifier

Tom Steele, with over twenty eight years glass related experience, has joined GQA as an External Verifier.

He holds assessor/verifier qualifications D32, D33, D34 and V2 and has been an assessor, internal verifier and centre co-ordinator prior to joining GQA.

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Alan Aspey, External Verifier

Alan Aspey M.A. , Chartered MCIPD originally came from an engineering background before joining the glass sector via Pilkington Glass Ltd. where he spent 27 years. He has worked in training and development for the last 15 years.

Alan worked closely with GQA, during his time with Pilkington, and joined them as an external verifier in 2004

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Brian O'Gorman, External Verifier

Brian O'Gorman is a GQA External Verifier, based in Northern Ireland, an accountant by profession, and previously managed his own Training company for some 10 years. The training and services his company provided, covered Construction, Retailing , Business Admin, and the Glass sector. As a result Brian is regarded as a valuable NI asset for GQA. He holds Assessor, Internal and External Verifier Awards, and other non Training associated qualifications.

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