Speakers
Helen France
Skills Funding Agency
Helen was born in Aberystwyth, Mid Wales and is proud of her heritage, and her homelands capacity to play rugby well.
Helen learnt her trade, first as a lecturer in PE at Exeter College, then at Bicton College of Agriculture where she progressed from Senior Lecturer to the Senior Management Team, completing her career at the College as Manager for Curriculum and Quality.
In 2000, she joined Edexcel/Pearson as a Regional Development Manager responsible for Further Education Colleges in the SW Peninsula. Then followed a promotion to Regional Manager for the Western Territories supporting schools, colleges and universities from Cumbria to Lands End. In she was again promoted to the position of National Manager UK Education.
In 2007, Helen joined the Learning and Skills Council as Area Director in Greater Merseyside; a wonderful piece of timing as the City prepared itself for its tenure as European Capital of Culture.
With the recent evolution of the Skills Funding Agency, Helen took the opportunity to return to the SW as Senior Account Director with a lead responsibility for ESF in the Region.
Mark Williams
Skills Funding Agency
Mark Williams is Head of Provider Accounts for the Skills Funding Agency managing a team responsible for accounts in the Devon and Cornwall area. He also leads across the region on Adult Learner Responsive programmes and the ESF Convergence Programme.
Previously Mark was Skills Development Director for the LSC in the region with responsibility for both the ESF Competitiveness & Employment and Convergence Programmes. Mark’s background is in skills and economic development
Jenny Milligan
Skills and ESF Convergence Manager, Government Office for the South West
Jenny has worked in the Government Office for the South West for 9 years and has been part of the ESF team throughout this period.
She has been the ESF Convergence Manager for 2 years and is responsible for ensuring the Programme is delivered to provide the maximum benefit to the individuals in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly whilst maintaining EU regulatory requirements.
For the previous 2 years she was responsible for the ESF Competitiveness Programme. She also worked as the Economic Relationship Manager for Cornwall, with particular responsibility for the Local Area Agreement.
From 2001-2006 Jenny worked on the Objective 3 ESF Programme where she implemented Co-financing in the South West Region.
Before joining the Government Office in 2001, Jenny worked for H.M Customs and Excise for 11 years.
Sarah Beeson
Head of Skills and the European Social Fund for the SW region, Government Office for the South West
Sarah has worked in the Government Office for the South West for 9 years and has been part of the ESF team throughout this period.
She has been the Head of ESF for the last 2 years and is responsible for ensuring the Convergence and Competitiveness Programmes are delivered effectively across the SW region, working with all the regional skills and employment partners to maximise the impact of the funding for the people of the South West region.
Prior to that Sarah was responsible for the ESF Objective 3 2000-2006 Programme which has now been successfully concluded.
Before joining the Government Office at the end of 2000, Sarah worked for then Employment Service, now Jobcentreplus, as the Jobcentre Manager in Newton Abbot. Prior to that she had worked at Liskeard, Looe and the Plymouth offices where she commenced her career in 1983.
Dr Paul Pettigrew
Head of Provider Accounts, Skills Funding Agency
Dr Paul Pettigrew manages the team responsible for accounts in the Dorset and Wiltshire area. He also leads across the region on programmes for the unemployed and ESF Competitiveness.
Previously Paul was Economic Development Director for the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) in the region with responsibility for 2012 legacy.
Paul’s background is in economic development and he has held senior positions in Scotland and Wales in Regional Development Agencies.
Mike Symons
European Social Fund Competitiveness Manager for the South West, Government Office for the South West
Mike is based in the Plymouth Office of Government Office for the South West where he is currently the ESF Competitiveness Manager for the region. He also has a remit to support the wider Employment and Inclusion agenda.
Mike joined the Unemployment Benefit Service of the Department for Employment in 1975, working in a variety of roles that included front line services, fraud and latterly as a Jobclub manager.
In 1996 Mike joined the Government Office for the South West where he has worked on Ministerial business, neighbourhood renewal and the safer communities agenda before taking up his current role in October 2009.
Anthony Mulvihil
Ministry of Justice National Offender Management Service
Operational Performance Manager
Tony Mulvihill worked for a number of years with a large national voluntary organisation dealing with victims of crime. He later joined the Probation Service, working in a variety of settings, initially as a Probation Officer, and then as a manager working in the Community, Prisons and Courts - both Crown Court and Magistrates Court.
He joined the Prison Service in 2003 and has many years experience working in contract management, particularly with ESF projects.
Tony was also a member of the armed forces for six years so is delighted to help the project to work with the rehabilitation of veterans.
Carolyn Webster
European Programmes Manager, Jobcentre Plus
Carolyn is the European Programmes Manager for Devon and Cornwall District and is responsible for the Department of Work and Pension’s co-financed European Social Fund (ESF) delivery in the Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. She is a member of the Convergence Programme Monitoring Committee and works with strategic partners to maximise the employment and skills potential arising from investment through the Convergence European Regional Development Fund and other regeneration activity
Carolyn is the employment and skills representative on the Cornwall Strategic Partnership (CSP) where she leads the development of “Cornwall Works”, Cornwall’s strategy to enable more people move into work, stay in work and progress in work and is the chair of Inclusion Cornwall, a sub-group of the CSP focussing on a broad range of inclusion issues.
In March 2010, Carolyn won the Outstanding Contribution Award at the 2010 South West ESF Awards. The awards recognise excellence in employment and skills activity across the whole of the South West ESF Convergence and Competitiveness programmes.
Carleen Kelemen
Director at The Partnership Office for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly
Carleen Kelemen, Director of the Convergence Partnership Office for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, has spent the last nine years championing the importance of higher education in the regeneration of the economy of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly and its value to the South West Peninsula.
Born in Sydney, Australia, Carleen has enjoyed a varied and international career. A graduate of Sydney University in Economics in 1977, she qualified as a chartered accountant and her career in England began as a managing consultant with London-based Price Waterhouse Coopers in the early 1980s.
In Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly she championed the private sector engagement at the heart of the £970 million European investment Objective One Programme from 2001 to 2008, and continues to do so in the current European economic regeneration programmes for Devon and Cornwall.
Over the last decade she has catalysed the renewal of confidence and a 'can-do' attitude in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly during the renaissance of its economy.