Key Members of NFEC
JONATHAN GILL - NFEC Director & Chair
Email: gillj@hlcollege.ac.uk
Telephone: Telephone: 01432 365 324
Jon qualified as a Civil and Structural Engineer from Plymouth University in 1991 and followed this with a PhD in Materials Science at Dundee University. Following a short stint as a design / maintenance engineer in the rail industry, Jon re-trained as a teacher and taught Maths, Science and Design Technology subjects in secondary schools in Southampton and Oxfordshire before seeing the light and discovering that his real home was in the Further Education sector.
Joining Gloucestershire College (then GLOSCAT) in 1999 as a lecturer in Instrumentation and Control, he quickly moved through the ranks and became head of the Engineering and Motor Vehicle Department at the college. In 2003 he joined Bridgwater College in Somerset as the head of the Automotive Section before moving on to head up the Engineering and ICT Section at the college. During this time, Jon grew the Full Time and Engineering Apprenticeship programme at the college and successfully bid to deliver the Rolls Royce Apprenticeship programme in 2009. In 2011, Bridgwater College opened a brand new £8M Engineering Training Facility with state of the art workshops, labs and classrooms.
Later on that same year, Jon joined Herefordshire College of Technology as the Assistant Principal for the Faculty of Technology, responsible for all Engineering, Motor Vehicle, Construction, Building Services and ICT provision. He also manages the college’s apprenticeship provision and is on the board of the Marches Skills Provider Network.
Jon has been an active member of NFEC for over 12 years and acted as regional NFEC co-ordinator for the South West for a couple of years before being appointed to the Board of Directors of NFEC in 2012 and subsequently being appointed as Chair of NFEC.
Jon dabbles in pantomime, music and the dark arts in his spare time and is married with two children
WARWICK HALL - NFEC Director & Secretary to the Board
Email: warwick.hall@nfec.org.uk
Warwick trained as a Mechanical Engineer and worked in the civil, construction and access equipment industries before moving into the automotive sector. There he had a career in Human Resource Management, in which he focused on employee relations, organisational development and people resourcing, development and training.
Warwick has a particular interest in preparing individuals for the ever changing competitive challenges of our global workplace, developing flexible work practices and increasing people’s skills, experience and capability - especially the importance of the continuous development of people in work.
During his career he has had close involvement with Further and Higher Education, linked to industrial strategic planning on national and regional skills needs. As part of this he has been closely involved in the development of Foundation degrees since their inception.
Now Director of Regional Strategy for Foundation Degree Forward (fdf), Warwick works closely with further and higher education institutions, employers and regional bodies in the development and promotion of vocational routes to higher education.
Prior to joining fdf, Warwick was an HR Manager with Land Rover, Rover and BMW and Programme Manager with the Automotive Academy . He has worked in the UK, Europe and the Middle East.
IAN GASKILL - NFEC Director
Email: Ian.Gaskill@ncl-coll.ac.uk
Telephone: 0756 144 5832
Ian's background is in Engineering; he served an apprenticeship and worked in the Engineering industry for 16 years, prior to starting his lecturing career at Northumberland College where he worked for six years.
Ian has continued to work in the further and higher education sector and has held various posts such as section leader/curriculum manager for ten years at Derwentside College, before moving onto Newcastle College for 3 years. Ian then moved onto New College Durham where he was Head of School for Technology which encompassed Engineering, Automotive and Construction curriculum areas. In September 2021 Ian returned to Newcastle College where he is Director of Industry Partnerships and Operations.
Ian has attended regional and national NFEC conferences since 1993 and has found the networking with colleagues, along with the opportunity to gain vital information from awarding bodies and experts from industry invaluable in helping to teach and manage within the FE sector, along with supporting the higher education aspects associated with working in a mixed economy college.
Ian sees his role as a Director of NFEC as ensuring that the response to Government, awarding bodies and others continues to be pro-active and a key force to help drive through responses and new initiatives. This along with ensuring that the voice of NFEC continues to be prevalent; and to encourage current and future members to raise awareness of the organisation in their colleges and centres.
JOHN LOCKEY - NFEC Director
Email: john.lockey@newcastle.ac.uk
John is an Electrical and Electronic Engineer with experience in a range of Industrial and Academic roles. Within industry he has worked across a number of sectors including Marine, Electronics and Microelectronics. During his career he has had close involvement with various bodies linked to industrial strategic planning on national and regional skills needs.
Within Further Education he was head of Engineering and Science for North Tyneside College (Tyne Met) and within Higher Education at Newcastle University held the post of Industrial Liaison Manager and Tutor initially for Mechanical and then for the faculty.
John works closely with Industrial partners with regards to student projects, mock interviews, recruitment, and visits. His current role as Student Engagement with Industry Facilitator within the learning and teaching team is to look at initiatives to continue to improve the student’s experience and employability opportunities within Maths, Stats, Physics and Computing.
Ben Bryant - NFEC Director
Programme Co-ordinator – Engineering and Construction Management, South Devon College
Email: benbryant@southdevon.ac.uk
Telephone: 07597 046557
Sarah Jenkins Finance Officer
Email: Finance@nfec.org.uk
Elaine Hyde - General Administrator
Email: admin@nfec.org.uk
Telephone: 07759 901 229, between 9.00am and 1.00pm, Monday to Friday
Elaine joined NFEC in March 2006 as our General Administrator. She is employed five days per week, Monday to Friday, and is available to answer and deal with enquiries between the times of 9.00 am and 1.00 pm.
Among a considerable range of administrative duties, Elaine provides support for NFEC conferences and meetings, she maintains a database to enable effective communications with Members and she is also closely involved with Credit Monitoring and Control.
Whatever the enquiry, Elaine will be able to deal with it - either directly, or by getting you in contact with the best person to help.
Jill Mustard - Operations and Marketing Manager
Email: jill@nfec.org.uk
Telephone: 07825 664995
Jill started her career in Engineering as a Student Apprentice at Rover Group, obtaining an honours degree in Mechanical Engineering, whilst moving around the various areas of the company, until she took a full time role as a reliability engineer in the vehicle proving section.
She then moved to become a resident engineer with Peugeot, based in Coventry, but when she transferred to become a Supplier Quality Engineer a couple of years later, she visited the French sites and suppliers as much as she did those in the UK.
Knowing that she couldn’t keep up with the travelling once her son was born, a short career break followed but it didn’t take long for her to decide that teaching Engineering would be the way forward for her. So some part time hours, initially teaching Maths, led to a fractional post in Engineering at Worcester College of Technology whilst her children were young. Jill returned to full time work in 2004 with a promotion to Senior Lecturer where she became responsible for Curriculum and Quality within the department. It was at this point she started to attend the Midlands regional seminars as a delegate. She did a lot of work developing Foundation Degrees and expanding the provision offered at all levels in Engineering at the college. In 2007, she was promoted to Head of Engineering, being responsible for over 30 members of staff.
Jill chose to leave the College in 2012 to become a freelance lecturer and this has given her the opportunity to do more of the things she has wanted to do in life too! She currently teaches apprentices for 2 private training providers as well as at Foundation Degree level at Aston University.
Becoming the Operations manager at NFEC is a new and exciting role for Jill and she is looking forward to getting involved with NFEC work which benefitted her so much whilst working at the College. She believes that the future of Engineering is critical and understands the importance of excellent teaching and delivery to future generations. She is looking forward to meeting people at regional seminars.