Speaker Biographies
Hermione Berry, Career Development Adviser, University of Bradford
Hermione Berry is a Career Development Adviser at the University of Bradford. She has worked
as a Module Co-ordinator for Career and Personal Development modules for several years and
also provides significant input into other accredited modules. Hermione has a background in HR
and has worked in various roles ranging from investment banking to retail where she specialised
in graduate recruitment. Currently she is developing on-line learning units to support self
directed study for careers module students.
Joan Cartledge, Development and Learning Consultant, University of Birmingham
Joan Cartledge is the Development and Learning Consultant in the Careers and Employability
Centre at the University of Birmingham. I have responsibility for the PDP development for
students, support of international students in relation to employability and act as the academic
advisor for our Personal Skills Award and the centre. I worked for many years as a community
Work Training Consultant and continue to do some consultancy work for the voluntary sector.
Professor Ginny Gibson, Head of Real Estate & Planning, Henley Business School,
University of Reading.
Ginny has taken an active involvement in developing the student experience both within her
School and across the institution. She has worked closely with the real estate alumni to extend
the opportunities for students to benefit from their experience.
She led the HEA Pathfinder project: Enabling Enhancement which developed a process and set
of tools to help departments and academic staff review and develop their curriculum and wider
student experience.
Gill Harvey, Careers Advisor, Roehampton University
Gill has been a careers adviser at Roehampton University for 12 years and prior to this worked
for West London Training and Enterprise Council in adult guidance, at London Central Careers
Unit as a specialist adviser for the Retail, Marketing & Advertising sectors, as a schools team
careers adviser with the London Borough of Wandsworth and as manager of a youth training
Scheme based in an FE college in the North Midlands. Gill currently holds responsibility for the
school of Arts at Roehampton and works part time 3 days per week.
Deirdre Hughes, Independent Consultant
Dr. Deirdre Hughes, PhD, M.A, Dip.C.G is Founding Director of the International Centre for
Guidance Studies (iCeGS), University of Derby. From February 1998 to August 2008, she led
on the strategic design and development of the centre’s work portfolio to establish its reputation
for high quality career research, theory and practice. She is a University Reader in Guidance
Studies with particular interest and expertise in building the UK evidence-base for careers work.
In early 2004, she was invited to present written and oral evidence to the House of Commons
Education and Select Committee advising on matters related to the National Skills Strategy: 1419 Education and, more recently, was invited to submit written evidence to the National Skills
Forum IAG Inquiry (2008). She is an external evaluator at Reading University’s ‘Centre for
Excellence in Career Management Skills’ (CCMS) and external examiner at Queens University,
Belfast, Ulster University and the West of Scotland University.
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Claire Jones, Careers Adviser, University of Reading
Claire has been a Careers Adviser at Reading for the last four years and has been heavily
involved in the delivery of careers education. Prior to starting at Reading she has had a variety
of different roles within the careers, education and training sectors. These range from working
as a Recruitment Consultant in the IT industry, as Work Experience Coordinator at Cardiff
University and in recruitment and marketing roles for a number of different training
organisations. She started her career working on government initiatives with long term
unemployed clients and has many years experience working on community programmes
Nicola Langton, PDP Development Officer, CDoTL, University of Reading
Nicola Langton is PDP Development Officer at the University of Reading with responsibility for
the adoption, roll out and further development of a central initiative to support student
engagement in PDP (iLearn) across the University using Blackboard and an enhanced
Blackboard eportfolio tool. She has taught Legal English, Business, and Interpersonal
Communication in university, corporate and professional settings in France and Hong Kong.
Until recently, she was the e-Learning Development Officer at Cardiff Law School responsible
for creating and implementing an e-Learning strategy and piloting new discipline-specific e-tools
and e-resources. Nicola has presented at several internationally-refereed conferences in the
fields of professional communication, acquisition of specialist competencies, designing webmediated resources to support lifelong learning and competency acquisition. Her publications
include: Hedging Argument in Legal Writing (2001), Legal Discourse: Opportunities and Threats
for Corpus Linguistics (2004 with Bhatia and Lung), Cleaning up the Act: Using Plain English in
Legislation (2006).
Tania Lyden, Careers Education Officer, Careers Advisory Service, University of Reading.
Tania's Careers Guidance experience evolved over ten years at Oxford University where she
gained the AGCAS Certificate in CEIGHE. Her role there included development of the
University's Personal Development Planning System ASPIRE. Since early 2008 she has been
collaborating on the development of Careers Management Skills at the University of Reading
which is, uniquely, a compulsory, assessed module for all students. Her interest lies in how the
social and psychological come together in the careers context, combining the knowledge gained
from her Sociology and Psychology degrees. She also works as a private Management
Development Consultant. Prior to working as a Careers Adviser, Tania achieved the Institute of
Personnel and Development Diploma whilst working as a Human Resources Professional and
Management Developer at PricewaterhouseCoopers, and prior to that, at Thames Water.
Damian McGivern, Director, Career Development Centre, University of Ulster
Damian McGivern has worked within the University of Ulster since 1991 and is currently Head of
the Career Development Centre. During this time he has managed a number of internally and
externally funded projects in the areas of employability, career development learning, workrelated learning and personal development planning. He was Chair of the Association of
Graduate Careers Services in Ireland (2000 – 2004) and led the development of a wide range of
projects that had a direct benefit to both Careers Services and graduate recruiters. He is a
qualified teacher and has taught both in grammar schools in Northern Ireland and a teacher
training college in Nigeria.
Sophie Miller, Deputy Director and Head of the Guidance Team at the Careers and
Employability Centre, University of Birmingham
In my current role as Deputy Director and Head of the Guidance Team for the Careers and
Employability Centre, I have responsibility for the advice and guidance services we provide for
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undergraduate and postgraduate students. My experience in HE and FE has involved
developing careers programmes for a variety of learners.
Dr Sharon Milner, Employability Development Officer, Ulster University
Dr Sharon Milner is the Employability Development Officer based within the Career
Development Centre at the Ulster University. In her current role she is primarily concerned with
evaluating the employability development opportunities across the University available to
students, administering and delivering postgraduate career development learning. She is a
Chartered Psychologist continuously employed in the world of academia in a variety of roles
such as lecturer, research fellow and administrator. Currently she is a member of the Simon
Community NI Steering Group project “Live and Learn Development Grant Research” which has
been looking at employability and training the homeless.”
David Stanbury, Development and Dissemination Manager, Centre for Career
Management Skills, University of Reading
David played a key role in the implementation of a university wide, 5 credit CMS module
component at the University of Reading, and helped edit and sell the Career Management Skills
Online website. He subsequently co-wrote the bid to establish CCMS, helped devise the
Destinations® website and currently is the Development and Dissemination Manager for CCMS.
At one time David chaired the AGCAS Careers Education Task Group and in this capacity
edited and published the Careers Education Benchmark Statement (2006). Before coming to
Reading in 2000, he worked in Kent for seven years as a careers advisor in the statutory sector.
Mary Sweeney, Head of Careers, University of Limerick
Mary Sweeney is Head of Careers at the University of Limerick, Ireland where she is
responsible for the overall development and management of the careers services for students
and recent graduates. She has extensive experience in managing undergraduate placement
programmes and in the development of careers education, advice and guidance in higher
education. Her current role involves liaison with graduate employers on all matters relating to
graduate recruitment and development. She has designed and delivered career development
skills modules as part of academic curriculum, integrating work-based learning into the
programme. The University of Limerick was one of the first universities to use and customize the
original CMS package developed by the University of Reading.
Mary has been actively involved in higher education careers work at a national level and has
served as chairperson of the Association of Graduate Careers Services in Ireland. During her
tenure she initiated a series of national conferences, bringing together careers specialists,
academics and employers, on the theme of developing employability skills.
Sandhya Tanna, Careers Education Manager, Careers Advisory Service, University of
Reading
Sandhya Tanna has worked as a career adviser for six years in higher education. She
previously worked at the University of Plymouth and the University of Arts, London as a careers
adviser. She is currently working as a career education manager with the Careers Advisory
Service at the University of Reading. The University remains unique in offering a compulsory
assessed five credit module in Career Management Skills (CMS) delivered by careers advisers
and academic teaching staff.
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Eddie Tunnah, Director, Deputy Director of Student Services and Head of the
Employment and Careers Service, Roehampton University
Eddie has been Deputy Director of Student Services and Head of the Employment and Careers
Service at Roehampton University since December 2006. Before this he worked as a careers
adviser at London Metropolitan University (2001 to 2003) and the University of Westminster
(2004 to 2006). In the latter role he was responsible for the role out of Westminster’s CMS
programme across the University. Eddie is also a member of the AGCAS Disability Task
Group, and is involved in the production of “What Happens Next?”, an annual report that looks
at the employment destinations of disabled graduates.
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