OAKLEIGH STRENGTHENS ITS CAPACITY AND EXPERTISE IN FE WITH A NEW SENIOR APPOINTMENT

We are delighted to announce that Julie Tolley has joined Oakleigh as a Principal Management Consultant to lead and develop Oakleigh’s work in the FE sector. Julie joins Oakleigh from Tribal Education where she was the Managing Consultant for the post 16 education team. She brings to Oakleigh wide-ranging experience of working with the FE sector on a range of projects for FE colleges, the LSC at local, regional and national level, local authorities (LAs) and national bodies such as DBIS (formerly DIUS) and the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG). Julie’s expertise is in post 16 strategy and policy and she has led strategic option reviews and feasibility studies for colleges considering the best way to meet future learner needs and has supported colleges in developing outline and final merger proposals and capital build applications. Scoping the future education landscape and advising LSCs and LAs on how to configure and resource post-16 learning has been a key feature of her project work. Working more closely with individual colleges Julie has advised on a range of issues including management restructures, education strategy and curriculum planning.

In Wales Julie has been one of the first people to work on business planning for education projects using HM Treasury 5 Case Business model and has worked with clients in successfully submitting Strategic Outline Cases (SOCs) and Outline Business Cases (OBCs) to WAG. Her other work in Wales on Geographical Pathfinder projects and Tri Level reform means she brings an in-depth knowledge of the Welsh education sector to Oakleigh to complement our work across the UK in England and Scotland.

Previously, Julie was Vice Principal at Wakefield College and, before that, a Faculty Director. This enables her to bring a grounded understanding of the sector to bear on her analysis and advice to clients. Julie says...

“I am delighted to be working at Oakleigh, building and developing the FE portfolio and bringing Oakleigh’s expertise in change management, HE and local government to support the FE sector in the challenging times ahead. I am looking forward to continuing to work closely with colleges and sector organisations to ensure that future learners’ needs and those of the staff and organisations that work with them are met.”

Julie has also worked on a one to one basis with senior managers in the public and private sector to enable them to improve their leadership skills through using Hay’s 360 Emotional Competence Inventory and Leadership Styles analysis. This aspect of personal Leadership development will add a new dimension to Oakleigh’s work in this area. Her work on leadership development has led Julie to be invited to be a Visiting Fellow at Kingston University Business School.

Julie is also a PRINCE2 practitioner and Improvement Adviser for LSIS.

Should you want to discuss ways in which Oakleigh can work with you on any post 16 projects then please make contact with us by clicking here.