Nick Haywood

Nick started his working life as a zookeeper, working at the Welsh Mountain Zoo & Blue Planet Aquarium, moving into further education (FE) as a Technician/Instructor at Reaseheath College. He continued to push links between industry and education, being part of the team to successfully achieve a zoo license for an FE college (a UK first). This paved the way for many other colleges to follow, ensuring teaching mirrored industry standards in a fully registered and licensed zoo.

After being promoted to lecturer in 2006, he started to work with many awarding bodies as an external quality assurance professional, ensuring assessment was effective and reliable. He has managed many departments, from Animal Management to Land-based Engineering. Not only is he extremally passionate about vocational/technical education, believing it provides a vital route into employment for many young people, he is a product of FE, having completed vocational BTECs instead of A-Levels to secure his place at university.