Amanda Vickers
Development Manager
I’ve been at Involve Yorkshire & Humber since September 2007. My work on learning, skills and workforce development builds the training and qualifications opportunities in the voluntary and community sector (VCS) so that staff and volunteers have access to personal development opportunities on a par with other sectors. I also seek to support the 10% of all voluntary organisations that provide formal and informal education, often for the most disadvantaged learner groups. I co-ordinate the annual Adult Learners Week in Yorkshire and Humber, which celebrates the transformative effect of learning. I’m presently setting up a Yorkshire and Humber VCS Economic Development Group, to bring together a broad partnership of voluntary and community sector learning and skills interests that can define and promote the contribution of VCS learning and skills to the Yorkshire and Humber economy.
I became an Apprenticeships Ambassador (for Leeds Local Enterprise Partnership) for the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector in December 2011.
My ‘first career’ after graduating was marketing, chiefly for the architectural, energy, and educational publishing industries. I moved to Training and Enterprise Councils when NVQs were new, and have worked in the VCS since 1996 (initially for Relate), developing projects and programmes around social enterprise (I was Director of the Social Enterprise Support Centre), business development, leadership and management, community-based learning, informal learning and mentoring.
In 2007 I completed a Masters in Adult Learning and Community Development from Leeds University.
When not working I play violin with an amateur orchestra, relax with my family and chickens, and I’m a board member of Walton Community Centre, and of St Catherine's Centre, both in Wakefield.
