Our Team
Gill Scott – As Senior Education Consultant I work with senior leaders on strategic projects, drawing upon my extensive experience in the development of place-based approaches to education and skills and the development of high quality technical and higher technical education. Previously at GM Aimhigher then Greater Manchester Strategic Alliance(GMSA), I worked across colleges, universities, schools, employer networks and other stakeholders to develop employer led Foundation Degrees and led on a key project, GMSA Pathways, to create coherent progression routes for over 10,000 GM learners on vocational programmes. More recently as Director of Quality in a large FE provider, I led on Greater Manchester collaborative strategic projects, working with college leaders to help them to develop a Strategic Implementation Plan. To support collaborative development of higher technical education I initiated and convened Sector Development Groups, bringing together providers, employer networks, professional bodies and awarding organisations to shape and plan curriculum.
In my consultancy role I now lead our small expert team and I continue to work across the sector on strategic curriculum and quality education innovation projects.
Jon Rashid – With a background based in Computer Games and Children’s Television Jon moved into the educational arena more than 15yrs ago. He has spent that time embedding new technology into the pedagogical process. He has gained a vast amount of experience with mediums such as VR, AR, MR, Stereoscopic 3D and photogrammetry carrying out project based learning exercises with all levels of education. These have been with SEND and Primary through to Colleges, Universities and corporate training with JLR and Fujitsu. Now focused primarily on blended learning solutions that concentrate on learning outcomes and engagement, with budget, accessibility and stakeholder participation in mind.
Linda Edwards – Co-founder and Director with responsibilities for functional and financial management, I have a background of managing extensive multi stakeholder projects in the private and public sectors. This rich background has honed my skills in stakeholder relations, project and financial management.
My first career experience of project management was in a large Civil Service Department in the early 1990s, delivering a program of projects to improve the quality of customer service, and bring about organisational transformational change. From this I progressed to be involved in the management of rewarding and successful project work in the Education, Construction and Adult Social Care sectors. Delivering high-quality customer service is my passion, not forgetting my first project management lessons.
Claire Cullinan (nee Collins) – has supported further education and training projects for 25 years in the UK and Europe. Claire started her post-16 teaching career in the late 90s and moved into teacher education and wider development work. Her first national role was for the Skills for Life initiative, supporting colleges, prisons, training providers and local authorities to develop their adult literacies (English, maths and ‘ICT’) provision. Her work found her in many settings, from bus depots to universities, and she developed deep knowledge and expertise about adults’ literacy practices in work and life. Claire later lived in the Netherlands, supporting the Dutch Reading and Writing Foundation to design their national adult literacy programme, drawing on lessons learnt from her work in England. More recently, Claire has led national professional development and action research programmes including those with a focus on digital and online learning. During the challenges of the Covid pandemic, Claire worked to support the flow of learning between classroom and screen. For example, working on behalf GM colleges, she brought together subject experts in a ‘Communities of Practice’ model to identify, evaluate, develop and deploy digital/online approaches in each college. The project also worked at a strategic level to influence, inform and shape the mid to longer-term development of digital and blended learning strategies of colleges across the partnership.
Dr Roger Clark – With a grounding in research psychology, extensive experience of digital learning resource development and a long standing interest in artificial intelligence, he contributes to the consultancy in at various levels. His academic background includes a PhD in early language development and lecturing in psychology at HE and FE level. Later, as a software developer, he designed and implemented applications for educational use and also managed IT projects across HE and FE in Greater Manchester. His role in this team is to provide research expertise and to contribute to the educational design of the innovative digital resources we develop. He is actively piloting the the innovative use of developments in AI technologies for education sector applications.
Karl Grimes is an education and careers specialist with over 20 years’ experience designing and delivering learning, training and workforce development across institutional, regional and national systems. He combines classroom and school‑leadership practice with strategic delivery of Careers Hubs, national programmes and the design, implementation and scaling of policy and quality frameworks.
Karl began his career as a classroom teacher and progressed to Assistant Headteacher, where he built and led a Sixth Form, redesigned vocational and technical pathways to reduce risk of NEET, and introduced industry‑backed pre‑apprenticeship programmes and modern work placements. He has a strong track record of ensuring regulatory compliance and quality assurance for vocational qualifications.
Karl established and led one of the country’s early Careers Hubs in Greater Manchester, working across ten local authorities to align careers provision with local skills priorities, secure major grant funding, and drive rapid improvement across 226 schools and colleges. At national level he joined the Careers and Enterprise Company, ensuring consistency and quality across 44 Careers Hubs serving 95% of schools and colleges in England. He progressed to the leadership team to form and lead the Development and Standards department and now leads workforce development for over 300 staff nationwide.
What he brings to Gill Scott Consultancy
- Deep sector expertise: practical school leadership combined with regional Hub delivery and national system design.
- Workforce development: design and implementation of scalable CPD and a modern professional development framework.
- Partnership leadership: proven ability to forge strategic partnerships with local authorities, colleges, employers and sector bodies to commission programmes that tackle disadvantage and align to economic priorities.
- Data driven improvement: uses data, intelligence and insight to identify training needs, address root causes of underperformance and connect practitioners to effective practice.
Raised on one of Europe’s largest council estates, Karl returned to teach in his home community and remains committed to equitable careers education. He has a long history of volunteering, mentoring and school governance, and he is driven by a belief in the transformative power of education.