EBC Contacts, Links and Key Partners

Barbara McClennan

Chief Executive

Qualifications and Experience

Barbara joined EBC in 2002 from a previous post as Communications Manager with Newcastle City Council where she launched and managed its highly popular Citylife magazine for all residents in the city as well as managing all stages of the production of various council publications.  She was also joint acting Head of Communications at Newcastle. 

Before that she was a lecturer at Darlington College of Technology teaching local government as well as journalism skills, design and layout work to students on various courses including students studying for a BA (Hons) journalism, BTEC Media and those following NCTJ block release courses as part of their journalism training.

Previously Barbara had spend 20 years in local print journalism in various roles including district reporting and news desk work. In the later years she specialised in municipal reporting. During her time in journalism she won numerous awards for her writing including North East Journalist of the Year.  She was twice voted the region's Investigative Journalist of the Year and also holds several national journaslism awards.  She also has four years public relations experience gained when she was Public Relations Manager with Sunderland City Challenge.

Before taking over EBC Barbara had spent many years supporting the work of education business partnerships as a volunteer mentor for young people considering a career in journalism.  Barbara is a Common Purpose graduate and in 2008 completed the Northern Rock Lead the Field training programme for Voluntary Sector Leaders.

In 2007 Barbara was runner up in the region's prestigious Community Foundation/Ward Hadaway Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award.  She had previously been runner up in the Women into the Network Woman Social Entrepreneur Award. Since her time with EBC she has seen the organisation take a number of top awards.

Barbara holds a Masters Degree in Mass Communication, Level 5 NVQs in both Strategic and Operational Management as well as both journalism and teaching qualifications, including D32 and D33.  She is a member of the Chartered Management Institute and ACEVO - the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations.

Barbara is a school governor and Trustee of several charities.  As volunteer chair of one - South Hylton Community Building Project - she has overseen the raising of more than £600,000 to build a new community building for her village.  She represents the community voluntary sector on various strategic organisations including the Pentagon Partnership, TyneWear Partnership and the new City Region Interim Executive Board.  She is also an active member of Sunderland Community Network and represents it on the Sunderland Partnership's (LSP) Management Group and the Sunderland Learning Partnership.

Barbara is responsible for all aspects of the strategic management of the organisation including contract compliance, policy development, implementation and review.  She also takes the lead role in fundraising, research and new programme and resource development and is the link officer with the Board of Trustees.

She uses her extensive media knowledge to develop programmes designed to give people a taste of journalism. In addition she specialises in developing a wide range of bespoke programmes designed to meet either the needs of funders or potential customers.

Barbara formally represents EBC on a range of organisations including TWEBLO's Local Area Network, Operational Managemers Group and Providers Group.

Newspapers in Education

A Taste for Enterprise

Making the News

Fashion, Fame and Fortune

Passport to Success

Comic Creations

Valuing Volunteering

Running Newsrooms

Working in Your Community

Stop the Presses

Teen Press

Masterclass Mentoring

Creative Businesses

Media in Education

Who am I?

Christine Vickers

Assistant Chief Executive

Senior Programme Manager

Qualifications and Experience

Chris has worked at EBC since 1999 and has a background in adult and youth training and retail management. She is qualified to teach both Basic Skills, and students with special needs in Further Education.  She also has the TDLB D32, D33 and D34 awards.

Chris manages the business team, taking on the strategic role in coordinating our response to business needs and has an overall supervisory role for administration support staff as well as providing line management support to the bulk of EBC’s staff.

She is overall lead officer for most of the organisation’s large scale events and supports the Chief Executive in overseeing the organisation’s longitudinal programmes including Exploring Tourism and Showcasing tourism. 

In 2005 Chris was given the additional role of Assistant Chief Executive in recognition of her work in developing the organisation and to support the growing portfolio of the Chief Executive.

She is responsible for implementing and reviewing systems and procedures in line with the organisations quality procedures documentation and the requirements of external accrediting bodies. She also leads on internal verification and standardisation meetings of NVQs.

Chris specialises in large scale event management and leads on a number of programme development issues.  She provides strategic guidance to the Business and Finance Coordinator on all aspects of financial and non-financial systems and procedures.

Supporting the Chief Executive on a range of strategic management tasks including developing, managing, delivering and evaluating community based projects within the North East is also a key role.

She formally represents EBC with local and national employers on community development committees and contributes to action plans within committees, encouraging participation within the local community.

Basic Skills

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Learning about Livelihoods and Lifestyles through Leisure

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ATTACK Clubs

Julie Kelly

Business and Finance Coordinator

Qualifications and Experience

Julie has a key combined role with EBC. as Business and Finance Controller she is part of the business recruitment and programme delivery team and   is also responsible for both internal and external financial recording and reporting.

She joined EBC in 2004 from Milltech Sunderland where she was Training Co-ordinator managing the  delivery of funded contracts in a variety of programmes including Advance and Foundation Modern Apprenticeships and E2E training. At Milltech she led on all quality inspections and adult learning inspections.

Julie has extensive links with both professionals and organisations operating in the retail, IT and business administration sectors.

She previously worked with Zodiac Training and a  number of retail organisations.

Julie's qualifications include a Level 4 NVQ in Management, Level 3 NVQ in Advice and Guidance, Level 3 NVQ in Occupational Health, Diploma in Performance Coaching , Keyskills Practitioners Award and Level 3 NVQ in Retail. She is also qualified NVQ Assessor and is currently training to be an Internal Verifier.

Julie is actively involved within community-based projects, encouraging and participating in community network groups and supporting volunteers with idea generation, qualification routes, child protection guidelines and risk assessments.

She is part of the team responsible for the recruitment of business supporters for EBC programmes as well as finance within the organisation, including implementing & reviewing systems & procedures in line with both organisation requirements and those of externasl funders and contracting bodies.She also has a key role in financial quality inspections, claims and audits.

Julie is responsible for the delivery of National Vocational Qualifications,

managing the training and development of the administration team in financial duties, claims and audits.

Julie is a key contact for the range of EBC programmes designed to meet the needs - and provide challenges and new learning opportunities - for pupils with special educational needs.  Julie is also a key contact for colleges and post-16 education and training providers needed bespoke programmes designed to meet their specific needs.

Her key contacts include: Train to Gain, City and Guilds, TimeBank, T-Mobile, Grundfos, Train 2 Gain and City and Guilds.

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Sarah Nicklin

Business Liaison Officer

Qualifications and Experience

Sarah joined EBC in 2004 from the Washington Business Forum where she worked as co-ordinator.  An ex- St Joseph's School (Hebburn), Sarah's qualifications include the GNVQ Level 3 in Leisure and Tourism.  since joining EBC she has completed a Level 4 in Management through Project North East.

Sarah is currently working towards an NVQ Assessor Award.

Sarah is EBC's lead officer in relation to links with both the construction sector and the hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism sector.  She was a key member of the EBC team which was commended in the Best innovation category of 2005's North East Tourism Awards for the design and delivery of a range of tourism-related programmes.  During that programme Sarah worked closely with key business contacts to deliver EBC's bespoke Masterclass Mentoring OCN's accredited award which recognised their involvement in supporting young people to gain a greater insight into the careers and opportunities in their sector.

Sarah followed up that success by helping to delivery our award winning Exploring Tourism programme which earned EBC the accolade of Tourism Ambassador of the Year in the 2006 North East tourism awards, sponsored by One NorthEast.

Sarah has responsiblity for the recruitment of business supporters for a number of EBC projects/programmes as well as delivery. She also takes on a key role in delivering EBC's pioneering Masterclass Mentoring qualification throuhg the Open College Network, including involvement in external verification meetings.

Sarah represents EBC on a number of external partnership bodies including Constructing Futures, Durham Business Club and the North East Chamber of Commerce. She is also EBC's link person for the City of Sunderland's Digital Challenge Hexagon communication's project.

Sarah's key contacts include a number key industry and business sectors including hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism and the construction sector. in the tourism industry they include The National Trust including Gibside and Alnwick Gardens, The Marriott Group, Nexus, MalMaison, Durham County Cricket Club, ONE NorthEast, Durham University, The Sage Gateshead, Tyne and Wear Museum Service, Cunard and Beamish Museum. 

In the Construction sector she works closely with ConstructionSkills, Carillion, Gleeson (GB Construction), Wates, Mott Macdonald, Teams Roofing, Clugston, Gentoo, City of Sunderland Council. McDonalds Restaurants.  Other important linkages include the Open College Network.

Because of her expertise in the tourism sector Sarah leads on many of our specialist programmes in this area.

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Valerie Barella

Business Development Officer

Qualifications and Experience

Val joined EBC in September 2005 as Business Development Officer (again funded Futurebuilders).  She was previously employed as Adult Development Manager with ETEC where she worked for more than seven years. Whilst there she managed the services sector contract for Job Centre Plus including recruitment, training and securing placements and employment for trainees. 

She has extensive links in the health and social, leisure, sport and travel, hospitality, hair and beauty and health care and public service employers.

Val also managed ETEC’s Quality Action Group leading on that organisation’s quality procedure and internal quality audits as well as carrying out external quality audits of external contractors. 

Her spare time sees her actively involved in the table tennis community of the city including fundraising and event management.  Previously she was employed in youth training in Gateshead. 

Val has aLevel 3 NVQ in Advice and Guidance, is a qualified NVQ Assessor and is currently training to be an Internal Verifier.

Val has responsiblity for the recruitment of business supporters for a number of EBC projects/programmes as well as delivery.  in particular she leads on business volunteer recruitment for the All Directions European Language Days, our University Visit and Graduate Fair, the EBC stable of post-16 programmes, Welcome to the World of Work Days as well as special projects which have included Celebrating our Specialness, Workability and Showcasing Tourism.

Having spend many years working in the community voluntary sector Val has considerable expertise in understanding that sector, the organisations in that sector, and the way it works within its communities.  Her knowledge and understanding has led to her having a key role in the management and delivery of a range of EBC's bespoke programmes for the community including Working in Your Community and Valuing Volunteering.

Val is one of a team responsible for the delivery of Open College Network anf NCFE Qualifications and City and Guilds NVQs including involvement in external verification meetings.

Val is a key EBC contact for special schools wanting bespoke programmes designed to meet their specific needs, as well as colleges and post-16 education and training providers.

Her key contacts include: Train to Gain, City and Guilds, 2-Touch, Grundfos, Barclays, T-Mobile, EDF Energy, Deloitte Touche, TimeBank, Chance, ETEC, Pallion Action Group, Herrington Burn YMCA, South Tyneside CVS, TyneWear Partnership, D'Arts, Play Together, Marie Curie, Grace House, Morrisons and the Regional Language Network North East.

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A Taste for Enterprise

Andrew Butler

Programme Officer

Qualifications and Experience

Andrew first became involved with EBC as a student supporter helping to deliver one of our first programmes - Access to College Education (ACE) Days.  He supported us whilst studying for his BSc in Environmental Studies at Sunderland University and joined the EBC staff team in 2000 as an Trainee Programme Officer.  He is now responsible for delivery of a range of classroom sessions to primary and secondary schools, along with post-16 institutions including development and delivery of a range of media-based programmes (film, TV and radio) using EBC's EBC’s Sony equipment.

In 2007, as EBC's Health and Safety Co-ordinator, Andrew secured both his Level 3 in Occupational Health and Safety and the NEBOSH General Certificate in Health and Safety awards.  He is currently training to be a trainee assessor for the delivery of NVQs.

In 2005 Andrew strengthened his portoflio by carrying out a  six month secondment with The Big Ideas Centre at the North East BIC where he was responsible for delivery a range of the Big Ideas Centre training modules both at the centre and through outreach work across the region. Andrew was also part of the team which delivered the award winning Exploring Tourism programme.

He is currently a Community Governor for a local secondary school and has a number of qualifications linked to the safe running of outdoor activities including expeditions.  In his spare time he is a member of a local band and is studying for an NVQ in Introduction to Youth Work.

ASDAN trained, Andrew is the lead officer for our ATTACK Clubs which offer alternative learning opportunities for young people with complex learning and behavioural issues.

As well as delivering a range of our media progrannes, Andrew has lead responsibility for two bespoke environmental projects - The Big Green One and Green Themes and provides specialist input into the ONE North East Our Place 2020 programme.

Andrew is also part of the EBC delivery team for several of EBC's large-scale events designed to develop young people's employability skills and to provide them with practical work related learning opportunities.  He leads on The Big Green One  and on EBC's University Visits and Graduate Fairs and is part of the EBC team involved in the ONE NorthEast Our Place 2020 regional schools competition.

Andrew is the organisation's Health & safety Co-ordinator and supports the Chief Executive in managing all health and safety related issues, including training, for the organisation and its staff as well as for the programmes it runs.

Andrew is the key EBC contact for schools looking to develop young people's understanding of their post 16 and post 18 options as well as schools wanting bespoke media-related programmes designed to meet their specific needs.

His key contacts include: The Big Ideas Centre, North East BIC, various environmental and green sector businesses

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Emerging Voices

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Basic Skills

Paul Harrison

Trainee Programme Officer

Qualifications and Experience

Paul joined EBC in Februrary 2008 as a secondee from a key partner organisation, I.W.Kay (Consultancy Services) Limited.

He had been involved with EBC as a volunteer supporter at a number of our large scale events across the region.

Before joining EBC, Paul had spent more than nine years at Nissan Motors (UK) where he worked as a member of the manufactoring staff involved in production line working on the Micra, Almera and Note models created by the international car maker.

Whilst at Nissan Paul gained an NVQ in Manufacturing.  Previously he had been a fork lift truck driver.   Paul is an ex-Usworth School pupil who studied motor mechanics at Sunderland College before starting work.

He is working towards his NCFE Certificate in Volunteering and is also training to become an NVQ Assessor. In his spare time he is also studying an NVQ Introduction to Youth Work.

Paul's key links include other delivery organisations involved in the Make it Work The Sunderland Way pilot programme - designed to encourage unemployed people back into work. 

His key contacts include: Washington Arts Centre, Grindon's GATES centre as well as JobCentre Plus and various community venues across the city.

Karen Bulmer

Part Time Administrator

Qualifications and Experience

Karen has had considerable involvement with EBC for a number of years including supporting the delivery of our events in her capacity as volunteer secretary of the North East American Car Club and also as a volunteer adminstrator.    She has previously worked in several sectors including retail and social care as well as in a part time administration role for a local infrastructure charity.

She is currently working towards an NCFE Certificate in Volunteering.

Karen is responsible for managing all adiminstration tasks, financial and non-financial, of EBC's small administration team.  These include stock purchase, resource management and collation of evaluation reports as well as general administration and reception desk duties.  In addition Karen oversees the preparation of relevant data for funders in relation to staff timesheets and event activity.

She has considerable experience of event management and fundraising as a volunteer with a local charity.

Thomas Cleghorn

Trainee Administrator

Qualifications and Experience

Thomas is EBC's Modern Apprentice and will be securing his NVQ Level 3  in Business Adminstration through support from ITEC Sunderland whilst supporting EBC's administration needs.

He is an ex-St Aidan's School pupil where he gained 10 GCSEs.  He followed this up by completed an NVQ Level 2 in Business Administration whilst working at Sunderland Magisatrates Court.

His long term aim is to join his father's property building company.  Thomas is a keen sportsman and enjoys football and rugby. He is also a regular on the ski slopes of Austria, Franch, Italy and Canada.

Thomas is responsible for carrying out all adiminstration tasks, financial and non-financial, of EBC's small administration team.  These include invoicing, stock purchase, resource management and collation of evaluation reports as well as general administration and reception desk duties.  In addition Thomas provides support in the preparation of relevant data for funders in relation to staff timesheets and event activity, etc,