Throughout her career in Parliament, Rt Hon Anne Milton has served on the Health Select Committee and as Shadow Minister for Health, Minister for Public Health and Deputy Chief Whip. As well as this, she was appointed Minister for Skills and Apprenticeships and Minister for Women from 2017 until 2019.

Anne has worked with several organisations in the Further Education and skills sector, and she now chairs a Social Value Advocacy Board for PeoplePlus; is an associate for KPMG and Serco; Chairs the Purpose Health and Social Care Coalition; is an advisor to PLMR and continues to work for organisations involved in Further Education and skills.

Andy Salter has spent most of his 30-year working life in and around the commercial vehicle and road freight sector, building detailed knowledge and expertise. In addition to being the former editor of TRUCK and Commercial Motor magazines, Andy was also a Chair of the International Truck of the Year jury and is now managing director of DVV Media International, a leading publisher in the transport and logistics sector. He is passionate about helping the freight transport and logistics industry prepare for a carbon-zero future.

Lucy has worked in the training and education sector for over 20 years and for the past 10 years, she has been working in the Apprenticeship arena. Initially, leading the business development teams at 2 London FE colleges and now, for the past 6 years, working for Health Education England (now NHS England), offering strategic support to the NHS on all aspects of apprenticeship development, delivery, and implementation. She is very passionate about apprenticeships as a great tool to recruit new talent to the NHS but also as a way to upskill the existing workforce and offer career pathways and progression. She was Highly Commended – Apprentice Champion of the Year at the National Apprenticeship Awards 2022.

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

Laura-Jane founded Youth Employment UK in 2012, an ogranisation that supports more than 250,000 young people, employers, educators, third sector organisations and policy colleagues every month.

Recognised as a leading youth employment expert Laura-Jane provides support, insight and expertise to many groups as Co-Founder & Chair of the Youth Employment Group, Secretariat and Advisor to the APPG for Youth Employment, a founding Board Member of the Youth Futures Foundation, and has been secondary school governor for 6 years.

Jayne started her career as a junior assistant on the Hair & Beauty Group at Reed Business Information and worked her way up, having qualified as a journalist, to become Editor-in-Chief of the portfolio. She is now Executive Director of the Professional Beauty Group, which includes the Hairdressers Journal International, Salon International, Professional Beauty and Aesthetic Medicine brands.

All of these have a multi-channel approach to their content with events, awards, print, online and social media channels. Actively involved in the hair and beauty industry for 30+ years, Jayne is an effective member of industry associations and bodies and is a trustee of the industry charity.

As well as this, Jayne is also a member of the VTCT Board of Trustees and brings her current knowledge of the hair and beauty industries and a passion for raising the standards and positive profiles of the markets.

Sharon has been in the business for 30 years in a variety of functions and roles. She joined the HR team 18 years ago, covering all elements of Supply Chain and now heads up the Early Careers agenda for Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) in Great Britain.

Having spent the majority of her career developing young talent at the start of their careers, her current remit fits perfectly with her passion to create opportunities to support the next generation of young leaders. As part of her commitment, Sharon strives to work with strategic partners who challenge organisation’s approach to underrepresentation of young people across all communities and works to create a level playing field in the recruitment process that might unconsciously deselect from those groups.

Sharon’s dedication and commitment to CCEP’s apprenticeship programme has been recognised by CCEP’s leadership team, as well as her peers and apprentices alike. She has received praise for her outstanding leadership of the programme, which has continued to grow and expand in line with the business’ Early Careers agenda.

As well as recognition from the leadership team, 2021 saw Sharon win the Forward Ladies Corporate Leader and the London Regional National Apprenticeship Champion awards and recognition in the Queen’s 2022 New Year’s honours list with an OBE for services to Apprenticeships and Skills. Outside of CCEP she is an active board member for the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) and recently became the Vice-Chair of Youth Employment UK’s board.

Corrienne Peasgood took up the role of President of the Association of Colleges, the national voice for England’s colleges, in October 2022 after more than 25 years in Further Education. Additionally, she was appointed as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire(OBE) in 2020.

Corrienne trained as a plumber after leaving school at 16 and joined City College Norwich as a sessional plumbing lecturer in 1996. Over the next 15 years, Corrienne has taken on roles including full-time lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Director, Vice Principal, and Deputy Principal, thus gaining insights into the many different departments at the college. Corrienne then served as CEO and Principal at City College Norwich for a decade, before retiring in July 2022.

Sandy has worked in the Early Years sector for 31 years and had many roles. These include roles as Operations Manager, Learning and Development Director, and Operations Director.

Her passion for Early Years led to her gaining further training at Busy Bees Education, where she has now worked for over 10 years. Sandy’s expertise is bolstered by her BA honours in childhood studies.

Additionally, she is the trailblazer lead for the Early Years Educator and influences change within the sector to support all learners in achieving their goals.

Jenny started her career in Harrods as a graduate trainee and worked up to become the Director of Beauty before she left to join House of Fraser as Buying and Merchandising Director for Fashion Accessories and Cosmetics.

From there, she joined Fenwick and was MD for their Brent Cross store. Jenny has been actively involved in the Beauty Industry for 20 years and has served in a voluntary capacity in Industry Bodies as Chairman of the Fragrance Foundation UK, and Deputy Chairman of Cosmetics Executive Women UK.

Jenny has studied for a Masters in Coaching and Mentoring and has always been interested in the career development of young people.

Ben is CEO of WorldSkills UK, a four nations partnership backed by education, industry and UK governments. It is a world-class network acting as a catalyst for raising standards through international benchmarking, championing future skills and empowering young people, from all backgrounds, through competitions-based training and careers advocacy.

WorldSkills UK is the government’s representative at WorldSkills, the global body for skills development, and WorldSkills Europe, the European body for skills development. Appointed CEO in July 2023, Ben was previously Deputy Chief Executive at WorldSkills UK, a role he had held since 2019. Before joining WorldSkills UK in 2014, Ben worked across a range of policy positions in careers and skills, as well as on the devolution agenda, within government.

He was elected to the board of WorldSkills Europe in 2021 and is also an independent member of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education’s (IFATE’s) Approval Committee. A respected leader in skills development and education, Ben is a passionate advocate for skills development.

He combines a deep understanding of the UK and International skills landscape and its importance to UK competitiveness with a commitment to ensuring that young people have access to the best possible opportunities to develop their skills and reach their full potential.