Nice To Meet You…

Sarah has a strong background in Quality Assurance (Qualified IQA) and Assessment, and in Education and Training. She’s currently studying for the External Quality Assurer (EQA) qualification, to add more value to both Focus Awards and our Centres.

A big part of her current role is helping to plan and coordinate EQA activity. Sarah fully understand the challenges, issues and frustrations facing our Centres and other training providers in today’s demanding regulatory environment, so regularly provides sound advice and guidance on process and procedure from an Awarding Organisation (AO) perspective that is Ofqual compliant. Liaising between Focus Awards’ Quality Assurance Department, training providers and centres is something in which Sarah takes great personal and professional pride.

She also helps create new qualifications and drives forward applications for new approvals and qualification additions. Customer Service has always enthused her. “We’ve all been on the wrong end of poor customer service”, she says, “It’s unpleasant and unhelpful. But it’s also a great learning tool!” Sarah keeps such unsatisfactory experiences at the forefront of her mind when dealing with our own customers and clients.

She says that just avoiding those situations dramatically improves interaction, and ‘reverse engineering’ them “helps us set performance standards we can be proud of.”

Olivia has really trained hard this year to improve her professional status, and has succeeded in being appointed Interim Sales Manager. Olivia came to us from a Customer Service post within the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), where she applied her strong background in customer services. Her data analysis and data protection skills combine with prior experience of diverse customer needs in the hospitality sector, enabling her to take a flexible and agile approach to the complexities of the awarding organisation business. Olivia took on pragmatic oversight of our larger Centres to ensure all our colleagues and partners receive consistency of service delivery as the business grows and has scaled up her natural talent for ‘soft’ selling our product range. We’re delighted to finally have a full time Sales Manager ‘in-house’.

Helen is an energetic, driven and committed Qualification Development Expert and Quality Assurance Specialist with a BTEC Level 7 (Masters level) Advanced Professional Certificate in Investigative Practice from Bond Solon in London. She is also an experienced educator with an impressive academic background, including two Honours Degrees (BA and BSc), a Postgraduate Diploma in Child Care Law, and is an exceptional communicator.

Helen has a Social Work and ICT Teaching background, and readily establishes rapport with clients and colleagues, developing positive interpersonal relationships with ease. She was previously responsible for assessing and conducting the internal quality assurance processes of one of the largest training providers in the country.

Helen has significant experience of operating in pressurised working environments, with the ability to remain calm, effective and cheerful against stringent deadlines and time constraints, even in the face of challenging decisions.

With her ICT background and in-depth knowledge of hardware, software and computer-based data collection, she provides pivotal guidance in the collation, analysis and manipulation of complex information. She has been instrumental in the development and implementation of Qualitas, Focus Awards’ innovative information and quality management system.

Additionally, Helen is a qualified External Verifier, and ensures that all Focus Awards’ operations, and those of our Centres, conform to the most rigorous standards in full compliance with the Ofqual General Conditions of Recognition (GCOR). This maintains the reputation of both Ofqual and Focus Awards and reinforces learner protection at all levels.

Alison enjoys a challenge and is determined to succeed at everything she undertakes, which is reflected in her performance and commitment to her role. She has a diverse education sector and quality assurance background that underpins her experience and informs her highly developed analytical skills.

As an ambassador for Focus Awards, she ensures that all professionals operating in our centres work within the correct boundaries of our qualifications to promote excellence and facilitate learning. Alison holds them to robust quality assurance systems that adhere to awarding organisation (Ofqual) standards.

Alison is also a great team player and motivator, has excellent communication and interpersonal skills, and is accustomed to working under pressure. She has a flexible and diligent approach to every aspect of her EQA role, and outstanding interpersonal skills that always elicit positive responses from our centres.

Sharon Lawrence

We have recently been able to welcome another EQA to our Quality Assurance Team, to join Sarah Edmondson in the Beauty and Aesthetics sector. Although Focus Awards Is Approved in 11 business sectors, Beauty (including Hair, Make-up, and Nail Technologies) and Aesthetics have grown exponentially for us in the last couple of years.

Nosheen brings a wealth of specialist experience to Focus Awards and has a strong education and quality assurance background. She has specialised in this multidisciplinary sector for several years, is well qualified across the beauty and aesthetics disciplines, and loves the “Hair and Beauty” industry.

An excellent communicator, Nosheen gets along well with all our customers and colleagues, and enjoys working within a team environment. She describes herself as hard-working, reliable, confident, and lively.

Welcome, Nosheen. Great to have you on-board

Bobi has a friendly and cheerful personality and is a valuable, helpful addition to the Customer Service Team. With a solid background in hospitality and retail, she lives and breathes her commitment to demonstrating her passion for customer service, making every contact – inbound or outbound – feel important. Her innate enthusiasm and positivity also rub off on her colleagues.

Bobi is a great communicator, and is both conscientious and adaptable, reflected in her ability to manage high volumes of ‘live’ information from our Approved Centres and patrons. She enhances team efficiency and delivers a memorable ‘satisfied customer’ experience to all.

Amy is focused and driven, with over 10 years’ experience of working in customer facing roles. She provides an outstanding customer experience regardless of industry or sector, which enables her to connect well with all our Centre and prospective clients.

Tenacious and professional in all her engagements, with a very keen eye for detail, Amy’s open and transparent character is ideally suited to our Quality Assurance Team.

Amy also has a convincing background in business development, call monitoring, coaching, driving team performance, training team members, and identifying areas for improvement, making her perceptive insights invaluable to Centres, staff, and the outbound Sales Team.

Rebecca is a reliable and supportive addition to the team, with several years of administrative experience and expertise gained within the manufacturing sector. She is motivated to contribute positively to all interactions, internal and external, and is a great team player.

Rebecca brings a robust problem-solving capability to the company which consistently ensures deadlines are met. She also prioritises tasks and required outcomes effectively; important traits and skills in a regulated environment.

She successfully attained Diplomas in Business Management and Health and Social Care before joining Focus Awards, which are being ‘put to good use’ here.

Melissa joined us from Next, where she contributed to the logistics and distribution function. She previously completed an Admin Assistant Apprenticeship with Barnsley College, where she gained a Level 2 in Business Administration, and has also had some retail experience.

Melissa is part of our Customer Service and Centre Support team. Her friendly, outgoing personality and sense of humour are a boost to our fun but hardworking office environment.

Simon is an accomplished educator, having worked as a schoolteacher as well as a quality assurance associate for several educational awarding organisations, including NCFE, OCR, and Pearson.

Alongside his qualification as an External Quality Assurer (EQA), he has an impressive background in quality assurance generally, including working as a Standards Verifier, International Standards Verifier, Technical Reviewer, Assessment Writer, Analyst, Moderator, and Examiner.

In a “previous life”, Simon founded, grew, and sold 2 independent businesses and has recently written an academic textbook for Illuminate Publishing.

A keen sportsman, he volunteers as a football coach for an under-12 girls’ football team and is also a qualified Level 6 football referee.

Stephen has accrued over 25 years’ commercial experience in senior management and leadership positions across several business sectors. A freelance management consultant, he’s operated as a General Manager in wholesale warehousing and distribution (including transport and logistics), Director of Finance for the largest textile manufacturing group in Europe, Head of HR (including recruitment and selection at all levels) and others. His civilian career was preceded by a distinguished career in the British Army.

A lifelong learner and experienced business coach, Stephen has many years of experience in teaching, training and mentoring others, particularly in business skills.

As a trained B2B Copywriter he’s created marketing materials, promotional copy and website content for businesses in the education and training sectors and helped hundreds of fellow Armed Forces Veterans (more than 750 so far) successfully transition to their first civilian employment by writing their CVs – a distinct and separate category of copywriting.

Sumudu has joined the team as a Finance and Business Executive to help with our Finance and Administration processes. Sumudu is a Chartered Accountant and also has a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from York St John’s University.

He is an ACCA member, has nine years of mercantile experience and seven years of audit experience. He specialises in analysing dynamic changes in the business environment, for which he can create models for growth and expansion, among other useful disciplines as Focus Awards increases its reach in the Awarding Body marketplace.

Sumudu is cheerful and ambitious, with an enterprising and positive approach and outlook that will help us develop more quickly and robustly as we move forward.