EAL Head of Governance and Regulation Carolyn Barker has been elected to the board of the Federation of Awarding Bodies.
Carolyn joined EAL, the specialist awarding organisation for industry, in 2006 and since joining has held a number of roles in governance prior to taking up the role as Regulatory Responsible Officer and Head of Governance & Regulation.
“I am really delighted to have been elected by the FAB membership as a Director of the Board,” she said. “I am looking forward to working with my colleagues and in widening my liaison with key stakeholders. We have the opportunity to work more closely with employers, regulators and other government departments and agencies to ensure sufficiently robust qualifications and skills development are achieved through high quality vocational education and training which remains at the heart of the skills agenda.”
A key focus of Carolyn's team is to ensure that EAL fulfils its legal, regulatory and statutory responsibilities, working closely with the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) in England, the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) and Qualification Wales.
FAB’s chief executive Stephen Wright said: "I am delighted that Carolyn is joining the board at a time when we particularly need her strategic skills to help address the imminent changes to both funding and regulation. I anticipate her governance and compliance knowledge will play a key role in our discussions with the various government agencies, particularly Ofqual and SFA. We all look forward to working with her."
Carolyn leads EAL’s governance team to ensure an effective risk management approach is embedded in the business, including business continuity and implementing a lessons learned approach across teams. She leads on ensuring annual regulatory self-assessment of the business is completed ensuring that the auditing of key business processes meets ISO accreditation.
Carolyn builds on and develops, strong relationships with key stakeholders such as the regulators, trade associations and key customers whilst also leading the co-ordination of responses to consultations and communications both internally and externally on a range of governance and regulatory issues.
