Having taught for a number of years in Further Education teaching on Higher Education programmes, I started my Higher Education career at Liverpool John Moores University in 2002. At LJMU my role as Partnerships Manager was to develop the university’s franchised Foundation Degree provision in conjunction with Further Education Colleges in the North West Region. In 2005 I joined the Faculty of Education, Community and Leisure at LJMU as Senior Lecturer to lead and develop programmes aimed at the developing academic provision for the Wider School Workforce. I led the Merseyside and Cheshire Higher Level Teaching Assistant (HLTA) Consortium as part of this role working with the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) to deliver HLTA training and assessment for schools across the region. I joined Edge Hill University as Principal Lecturer in the Faculty of Education in 2007 to lead a newly validated Foundation Degree for the Wider School Workforce. During the first year of this appointment I worked as Project Manager on a funded TDA project to develop a national Foundation Degree framework for the wider workforce in schools. In 2013 I was appointed as Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty on a fractional contract. I began my EdD in 2005 at Liverpool John Moores University and completed in 2010 with a thesis entitled “Exploring the emerging role of the Higher Level Teaching Assistant in a remodelled school workforce in England”. My research interests are centred on the development of the school workforce in the context of wider public sector reform, particularly the disaggregation of the teacher role and development of the support staff role. I also have an interest in the development of professional programmes of study for non-traditional, mature learners particularly in terms of the use of technology enhanced learning pedagogy and of virtual environments in this respect.