Santina Bunting stands out as a trailblazer; she was the only one out of 150 students to embark on an apprenticeship journey after GCSEs. She completed her Level 3 Civil Engineering Apprenticeship at Arup in two years, earning a Distinction*Distinction* in her BTEC. Now a qualified Technician with the Institute of Civil Engineers, Santina is in her second year of a Level 6 Degree Apprenticeship at Warwick University whilst also working at Arup.

Within her role Santina is responsible for database management, drawing production and engineering analysis and has had the opportunity to work on a range of major infrastructure projects both nationally and internationally.

Santina was recently the Youngest overall winner of the Greater Birmingham Chamber of Commerce Young Professional of the year 2024 in its 24-year history as well as Apprentice of the year winner.She was also the Construction Excellence G4C Apprentice of the Year 2024 and won Highly Commended in the Engineering category of the Multicultural apprenticeship awards 2023.

Passionate about empowering apprentices, Santina has spoken at esteemed venues such as the House of Lords and the Annual Apprenticeship Conference, was invited to 10 Downing Street and contributed to the UCAS Apprenticeship Advisory group and the government recent skills for life campaign. She also recently hosted the Inspirational Youth Awards in front of 300 people as well as co-hosted the Federation of Awarding Bodies Awards.

Patrick has over 25 years of experience in e-assessment, specializing in various areas such as e-testing, e-marking, and e-portfolio development across the UK, USA, Middle East, and Africa. Recently, Patrick has assumed the role of CEO at the e-Assessment Association. He also leads the Special Interest Groups on Online Proctoring and serves as the Co-editor for the latest ISO Standard on the use of ICT in assessments.

Sorah is Senior Policy Advisor at the Edge Foundation, working with colleagues across the education sector to promote Edge’s vision for reform, translating research into impactful policy recommendations. She has worked on policy reports at Edge, including Flex Without Compromise - Preserving Apprenticeships for Young People Under a Growth and Skills Levy. Sorah leads Edge’s work across the four nations, bringing together civil servants in the Four Nations Policy Network and has produced a regularly updated guide to FE and skills across the UK. Before joining Edge she was a parliamentary assistant to a backbench MP.

Paul McKean is the Director of further education, skills and training at Jisc. Paul provides Jisc with strategic direction around its work in Further Education and Skills (FES). He works with colleagues across Jisc, funders from the four nations, sector bodies and learning providers, to ensure Jisc helps its members and their staff, utilise digital, data and technology. In addition, Paul leads the training team which supports FE and skills, HE and research members with their digital, data and technology CPD needs. While Paul has been an Association of Colleges Beacon award assessor for ten years.

Paul was a returner learner who retrained in multimedia and web design, as a mature student. He became a FE lecturer, then FE manager while continuing his studies, achieving an MSc in elearning and multimedia in 2012. Paul joined Jisc in 2014.

Anthony has a background in research, policy and social innovation across learning and skills, institutional change, future of work, and public service reform. He recently joined Ufi VocTech Trust as their Director of Strategic Engagement where he oversees the development of high-level relationships and initiatives to support Ufi’s mission and long-term goals.

Prior to joining Ufi, Anthony was Director of Policy and External Affairs at the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and Chief Research & Impact Officer at the RSA where he led social and policy impact programmes from 2016 to 2022. Anthony’s work at the RSA included the Ufi-supported “Cities of Learning” programme, a precursor to Ufi’s ongoing Strategic Partnership with the RSA.

Laura-Jane is a passionate campaigner for youth employment and the rights for all young people to access employment and have their voices heard on the issues that affect them.

Laura-Jane is a CEO & Board Member with more than 15+ years’ experience of leading both for profit and non-profit organisations. With personal experience of social inequality and poverty, Laura-Jane founded Youth Employment UK in 2012, believing that there was a need to put young people at the heart of youth employment policy and services on a local and national level. Youth Employment UK is an internationally regarded not-for-profit, social enterprise supporting young people, employers, educators, third sector organisations and policy colleagues.

Recognised as a leading youth employment expert Laura-Jane provides support, insight and expertise to many groups Co-Founder & Chair of the Youth Employment Group, Secretariat and Advisor to the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Youth Employment, a founding Board Member of the Youth Futures Foundation and most recently appointed as a Governor of The Bedford College Group.

Laura-Jane has also co-authored a number of reports, and provided content for published works. Reports include: Role of the Family in Social Mobility, Commission on Post 16 Education, Impact of place on youth employment – APPG Report, Making youth employment policy work - APPG Report.

Laura-Jane believes that it is for all of us to create a youth friendly society so that young people can fulfill their potential.

Emily is the CEO of the Association of Apprentices, a membership organisation created to connect apprentices across the UK for social and professional development. She leads the organisation as it further widens its apprentice community, delivers value for its apprentices and partners and seeks to influence the support apprentices need on programme to achieve the best outcomes.

Emily is also a director of the St Martin’s Group, a membership organisation established to support policymakers as they create a world-class Apprenticeship and Skills system. Emily has over 25 years’ experience as a Talent Specialist and for the last 12 years has worked in the apprenticeships sector, first as an employer and then training provider.

Catherine joined AoC in June ‎2015 after working in further education for 14 years as a teacher, manager and latterly SLT member. While at college she had responsibility for 14-16 partnership provision including careers, LLDD foundation programmes, English and maths and was 14-19 strategic lead.

Mick’s teaching career extended over eighteen years including work in secondary, sixth form and Further Education institutions as well as work in Higher Education as an external examiner. He has worked as a local education authority advisory teacher and as a general adviser working with primary and secondary schools. Throughout his career, he has been closely associated with the assessment system holding the posts of chief examiner, senior moderator, and external university examiner.

As a former Director of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, (QCA), and Executive Director of Education at the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA), Mick was accountable for National Curriculum assessments, regulating and supporting the delivery of general, technical and vocational qualifications and oversight of the National Curriculum. He was an adviser to the Department for Education (DfE) Expert Group on Assessment, the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) Commission on Assessment and the DfE Workload, Educational Technology and Data Policy Teams. Mick has advised the Welsh Government, the Punjab Examination Commission, and was a member of the Pearson Future of Qualifications and Assessment Expert Panel. He was a member of the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) Commission on Malpractice in Public Examinations and is currently the President of the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors (CIEA), Chair of the Evidence Based Education Advisory Board and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Leeds. He is also chair of the Assessment Committee at the Institute of Directors (IoD). Mick has chaired and presented to numerous conferences and delivered training on education and assessment to a range of organisations in the UK and aboard.

Mick holds a PhD in educational assessment from the University of Leeds and degrees at Master’s and Bachelor levels. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Founding Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching, and a Fellow of the CIEA. He is passionate about education and aligning the aims of national high-volume assessment and testing systems with the aims and realities of everyday teaching and learning in schools, colleges, and the workplace to benefit society and to support each individual learner to reach their true potential.