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New chairman for the Association of Learning Providers

The Board of the Association of Learning Providers has elected Martin Dunford, chief executive of the TBG Learning, as its new chairman.

Martin Dunford has led TBG for the last 8 years delivering work based learning to adults and young people and other educational services, particularly in collaboration with Further Education colleges and Learndirect. He was recently a member of the Government's Steering Group of the End to End Review of Modern Apprenticeships and has just been appointed to the Board of the Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA).

Mr Dunford succeeds Dave Rogers who is retiring as chief executive of JTL, a leading training provider in the electrical and engineering industries. Since October 2002, Mr Rogers has been a major force in significantly raising ALP's profile in both government circles and the media. According to the ALP, their achievements have included an increase in funding rates for work based learning (WBL), increased government recognition of the value of vocational qualifications as part of a national skills strategy and the opening up of the adult basic skills market for WBL providers.

The ALP membership comprises many private, not-for-profit and charitable training organisations, as well as colleges which deliver work based learning. Originally regarded as a trade body in the business of promoting provision of apprenticeships, it is increasingly seen as also representative of providers delivering adult basic skills under the DfES's Skills for Life programme, work-ready skills under Jobcentre Plus contracts and distance learning under UfI's Learndirect brand.

Commenting on his appointment, Martin Dunford said: "I have a clear remit to help the Association of Learning Providers secure an opening up of the learning market for independent learning providers. This objective relates to all government bodies responsible for delivering the national skills strategy and I am pleased that they increasingly recognise that our members are delivering the flexible learning required by both businesses and individual learners in a modern economy."

Paying tribute to the chairmanship of Dave Rogers, Graham Hoyle, ALP's chief executive, said: "It's been a pleasure to work with Dave Rogers over the past 18 months. As ALP's chairman and the chief executive of a high-graded training organisation, Dave has commanded the respect of policymakers. This has resulted in major progress being made in the agenda to advance work based learning as a fundamental ingredient to a successful national skills strategy. I look forward to working with Martin to make the case that our members can deliver even more for the Government to improve the UK's productivity."

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