Business West team

Andrew is a Business Skills Advisor working on the Workforce for the Future Programme. Andrew is passionate about supporting businesses to realise the potential of their staff and breaking down perceived barriers in qualifications and skills. Andrew has worked for multiple training providers for 10 years and now applies his knowledge and insight to ensure that businesses fully understand the positive impacts developing a workforce can have on a business, without the confusing language.  Andrew enjoys the challenge of marrying up the needs of a business against the current skills landscape.

Learn more about Andrew.

Barry is a Business Skills Advisor currently working on the Workforce for the Future programme, which supports businesses in all aspects of workforce development including recruiting and retaining staff, upskilling, working with schools and colleges and building a company brand. He works on the core support programme but leads on a sector specific Workforce for the Future programme supporting resilience in Adult Social Care businesses.

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Claire Bedding is a Business Skills Advisor working on the Workforce for the Future programme.

Claire joined the team from UCAS, where she was Apprenticeships lead, having previously managed the UK delivery of Apprenticeships at Screwfix. She works with businesses across the West of England, helping empower their workforce with enhanced skills and capabilities, through tailored advice and workforce development packages. Claire uses her learning and development experience from large commercial organisations to accelerate support for West of England regional businesses, helping them to understand their critical organisational skills gaps, how to organise apprentices, trainees and interns, as well as signposting them to educational courses.

Her passion is supporting young people and accelerating them towards opportunities to improve their futures. Claire is also a Board Director of a 17 school Multi Academy Trust and a lead IQA.

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Fay is a Marketing Manager at Business West, currently working on Workforce for the Future, as well as other projects. Fay works closely with the skills team, other delivery partners and the West of England Combined Authority, to plan and implement marketing campaigns to promote Workforce for the Future to SMEs in the West of England.

With a range of experience across a variety of industries, Fay has worked in marketing for over 10 years and completes a range of tasks, from promoting our latest events or sending out email campaigns, to writing case studies and creating marketing collateral. 

Fiona is a Business Skills Advisor working on the Workforce for the Future Programme. The programme provides fully funded workforce planning for SMEs to help them attract, recruit, and retain their workforce. Fiona has worked in skills and employability for many years, mainly within the private and third sectors. She is passionate about helping businesses navigate the skills landscape to grow their business and upskill their workforce.

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Hannah is a Programme Coordinator and Project Manager working on the Workforce for the Future programme. Hannah supports the Business Advisors and oversees the overall strategy, progress and outputs of the programme.

After studying Film Studies and Journalism at University and going travelling, Hannah gained experience in apprenticeship coordination before joining Business West. Hannah is motivated by working on projects that help young people fulfil their aspirations.

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Jacquie is an Events Coordinator, working with the skills team at Business West. She helps the team plan and coordinate events that are held as part of the Workforce for the Future programme, from initial set up and organising speakers, to running the event on the day and sending follow up emails. 

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Lizzie has worked at Business West since 2014 and since 2022 has been Head of Skills Delivery. Her background is in skills support, having supported businesses to identify and address their skills and training needs for a number of years. 

Lizzie now oversees the delivery of skills support programmes across Business West. Currently this involves the delivery of three projects under Workforce for the Future which focus on workforce development planning, building resilient workforces within the adult social care sector and offering tailored HR support to SMEs.

With a background as a business skills adviser for many years previously, Lizzie has been fortunate enough to have worked across many sectors including tourism and hospitality, retail, food and rural economy, professional and financial services, creative and tech industries and construction.