About STEP Training and Development

Who's who

STEP enables the development of staff to meet the aims of Children, Young People and Families in raising achievement; and to facilitate and drive change in schools and across the full range of the Directorate.

STEP’s Training and Development Officers are:

Wendy Lowes
Wendy has been with Birmingham Education Service for over 10 years, devising and implementing training on government legislation for schools, and planning and co-ordinating training for specific job roles.  She has a particular interest in the areas of Personal Safety and Stress Management. Recently she has developed a role carrying out support staff reviews in schools.

Jan Barker
Jan as the Learning and Development Officer has the lead role for the Directorate-based services, specialising in management development consultancy, and organisational development.  Her background is in personnel management and staff development in both Education and the NHS.

Nicola A. Oliver
Nicola has been with Birmingham Learning and Culture for over 10 years, with a passion in special needs having in-depth knowledge of Communication and Language Difficulties.  Nicola’s experience in the SEN code of practice and the changing role of the T.A. contributes to the workforce development, across all key stages.

Dominic Dineen
Dominic has been delivering training since 1992, which has included designing and developing a range of training programmes.  His experience has encompassed training on Literacy and Numeracy, Mentoring, legislation, soft skills, staff development and has worked extensively in and around education, particularly with disaffected young people.

John Taylor
John has worked in Adult Education for 20 years, with experience in both mainstream and special needs provision.  This has resulted in the development, design and and implementation of a range of teaching and training programmes including Quality Assurance, Basic Skills, NVQs, Assessment and Verification, Training and Development, Management and Initial Teacher Training.

Brian Baughan
Brian joined STEP Training and Development, in April 2006, from a private training provider. Brian has had various roles in the training arena from car crash repair centres, to banks, to self storage and now into STEP.  The courses he is developing are in response to listening to support staff in terms of what they feel would be beneficial to the pupils, the school and to themselves along with observations of the strategy objectives.  They include Essential Skills, Brain Gym, Personal Safety, Stress Management, Business Administration and Inductions.

Stephen Sullivan
Stephen joined STEP in March 2006.  His career has been diverse, up until the late 90's his background was catering focussed, after which he moved into training and development.  His experience ranged from NVQ Assessment(D32, D33 and D36 trained) to mainstream training in health and safety, food hygiene, etc.  He has recently completed the Cert Ed. in adult education in addition to his teacher training qualifications and a level 3 in counselling.  The skills he has gained have enabled him to develop the following programmes: Counselling; Customer Care; Professional development for mentors; Managing conflict; Engaging young people; Healthy eating and Communication.

STEP’S Administrative Manager is:

Shamim Ramzan

STEP’S Administrative Officers are:

The team’s expertise in co-ordinating and administering short courses, conferences and longer-term development programmes is extensive and we can offer specialist advice.  All are qualified in training and development.

Associate Trainers

STEP also has a network of approved Associate Trainers who can offer additional areas of specialism to meet the diverse requests for training requested by schools, nurseries and central support.