Our
Story & Team
Leading the UK's employer led digital skills revolution.
Meet the Team
Claire Dyer
Data Analyst
Claire is responsible for streamlining and maintaining all aspects of our data infrastructure and business intelligence suite to enable the organisation to operate effectively and efficiently. She has many years’ experience in project managing academic-industry collaboration frameworks, and in implementing workflow management solutions throughout organisations in the higher education and industry sectors.
Sarah McLoughlin-Abrahams
Head of Accreditation
Sarah is responsible for client services delivery and managing projects. She has many years experience in large scale programme management, skills development projects, and stakeholder relationship management.
Ryan Cousins
Digital Product and Experience Director
Ryan leads Digital Product and Learner Experience, ensuring each Tech Industry Gold learner is supported with unique experiences to enhance their study and learning journey.
Ryan has 10 years experience in product management, development and design across media, advertising, FMCG and SaaS - building unique services that solve challenges for customers.
Ian Bolton
Head of Learning Provider Partnerships
Prior to joining TechSkills Ian has extensive experience across a range of senior educational and learning development roles, most recently working in the esports and gaming sector.
Puisy Luong
Programme Specialist
Puisy has worked as an assessor and skills coach, as well as in quality assurance and employer engagement. She holds a BSc Hons in Computer Science and joins TechSkills with extensive experience of apprenticeships, coaching and stakeholder management.
Rachel King
Employer Partnerships Director
Passionate about connecting people together to make meaningful connections, Rachel is the main contact for the employers who contribute in such a valuable way to TechSkills.
Over twenty years’ experience working in media for Guardian Media Group and EMAP across every industry sector. Her work broadened on from senior management in sales and client management to Learning and Development and most recently teaching.
Lorna Willis
CEO
Lorna is an award winning CEO who puts investment in people and talent at the heart of the organisations she’s worked for. She successfully led the transformation of Archant Community Media delivering new revenue, audience growth and improved staff retention and engagement, as well as leading on the creation of a learning organisation with the emphasis on integrating digital skills and capability.
Lorna has significant experience across a wealth of functions including strategy, transformation, sales, finance, marketing, fund raising and sponsorship, and is the driving force to grow TechSkills and Tech Industry Gold accreditation to be the national standard for digital skills learning across the UK.
Advisory Board
Guiding our mission with expertise from across the UK tech ecosystem.
Accreditation Specialists
Dr Antonios Kaniadakis
Dr Antonios Kaniadakis is a Reader in the Department of Computer Science, Brunel University London, where he leads the Digital and Technology Solutions Specialism Master's degree apprenticeship programme. Antonios has been involved with TechSkills since 2014 and is quite experienced with the design, delivery and accreditation of both the Tech Industry Gold degrees and degree apprenticeships of all levels. He is a trained Ofsted Inspector and passionate about helping providers offer education and training of excellent quality in line with industry needs.
Dr Vito Veneziano
Vito oversees the provision of all degree apprenticeships within the School of Physics, Engineering and Computer Science of the University of Hertfordshire, and is the Employer Liaison Tutor for the Digital & Technology Solutions BSc degree apprenticeship. He chairs the General Assembly of the Professional Advisory Group in the School. An application designer and developer at heart, he's been a project manager and a business and IT consultant in a wide variety of domains and applications. With a mixed background in logics, artificial intelligence and cognitive psychology, Vito is passionate about development and migration projects, artificial intelligence and machine learning, knowledge engineering and data analysis.
Hajrë Hyseni
Hajrë is Programme Leader and Senior Lecturer in Digital Media, eBusiness, Mobile Business, e-Commerce, Global e-Business, AI and Machine Learning at the University of Hertfordshire. With over 16 years of rich and varied experience, he played a key role in establishing MSc in Strategic Business and Information Systems and BSc in Information Technology and Management for Business degrees. Research, conference presentations, programme validations and accreditation, along with his workbook "Social Networking for Enterprise", underscore his commitment to advancing digital media, mobile commerce, AI, and machine learning.
Dr Kevin Doyle
Kevin has recently retired from his post as Associate Head of the Department of Computer Science and Creative Technologies at UWE, Bristol, where he was responsible for business liaison and partnerships. During his 38 years as a university academic, Kevin developed, led, taught on and examined a wide variety of courses, including BSc, MSc, MBA and Degree Apprenticeship programmes, and designed, led and delivered many professional training programmes for public and private sector organisations. He has also acted as an external examiner for eight degree programmes in five UK universities and provided consultancy to public sector organisations and blue-chip companies.
Robin Oldham
Robin is Course Director for Computer Science and Digital Apprenticeships at Staffordshire University having worked in Higher Education for 20+ years as a Lecturer, Manager and Technology Professional. He has demonstrable experience in building strong working relationships with internal and external stakeholders in the UK and Overseas. He believes in providing effective information, advice and guidance to help learners identify and achieve their full potential. He has extensive experience of course design, development, validation, delivery and assessment across STEM subject areas in higher education.
Dr Oscar de Bruijn
Until 2018, Oscar was a senior lecturer in the Alliance Manchester Business School. He has extensive experience in programme and curriculum design. Together with TechSkills, he helped design the BSc IT Management for Business (ITMB) which launched in 2007. He was the ITMB programme director for 5 years between 2008-2013. He held programme directorships for the BSc Computing and Geography and the MSc Business Analytics and Operational Management, also at Manchester. He always put great emphasis on getting employers involved, both in curriculum development and in delivery, which resulted in near 100% student satisfaction and employability for all these programmes.
Industry Led
Governance
Our Advisory Board brings together the UK's most influential tech leaders to ensure we remain at the cutting edge of digital education.