The Upskilling Partnership Programme (UPP) is a New Zealand government initiative that works with employers to upskill the literacy and numeracy of the workforce.
About Us
Published 24 June 2008
The Upskilling Programme Office (UPO) manages the day-to-day relationships between the many partners in the Upskilling Partnership Programme.
Upskilling Programme Office
The Upskilling Programme Office (UPO) manages the day-to-day relationships between the many partners in the Upskilling Partnership Programme. Across our existing cluster of partnerships, in the past year we have helped employers develop and run training programmes for over 1000 people.
Jenny Thornton, Director
Jenny comes to the UPO from England where she was involved in the Skills for Life and Train to Gain initiatives to raise literacy and numeracy skills. She has extensive experience working with a variety of government agencies, businesses and other stakeholder groups in the implementation, management and quality assurance of large and multi-faceted workplace training programmes. In 2005 she assisted the Ministry of Education and NZQA on development of the Foundation Skills Self-Assessment.
Robert Siolo, Relationship Manager
Rob joined us from his role as National Pasifika Training Advisor to the Aviation, Travel and Tourism Training Organisation (ATTTO). He worked extensively with workplaces employing large numbers of Pacific people and developed the ATTTO’s Pacific Strategy. He has extensive experience in business ownership, development and governance. Rob works closely with our partners to help them develop a solution including suitable provision of learning as well as support with funding and long-term strategy building.
David Fowler, Relationship Manager
David has lengthy experience in the field of corporate education. Before coming to the UPO, David worked for Berlitz International in Japan where he was responsible for the business performance of 26 training delivery centres and a sales team servicing the HR departments of multi-national corporations throughout Japan. David works closely with our partners to help them develop a solution including suitable provision of learning as well as support with funding and long-term strategy building.
Jonathan Reid, Relationship Manager
Jonathan has recently joined us from the New Zealand Institute of Management Southern where he was responsible for consulting to organisations in the South Island with a particular focus on Management and Leadership. This experience enables Jonathan to partner with a wide and varied group of organisations, to accurately identify how we can support them reach their strategic objectives.
Robert McCann, Senior Communications Advisor
The Upskilling Programme Office welcomes two new staff. Robert McCann has joined the team as the new Senior Communications Advisor with a background that includes marketing and event management including work for both the private and public sector in communications.
Emma Lester, Team Administrator Coordinator
Emma Lester recently returned to New Zealand after living abroad in Canada. She has previous experience in administration having worked at Dow Corporate Real Estate in the capacity of a personal assistant. Emma is the new Team Administrator Coordinator and will be working closely with all the UPO team.
Upskilling Research Team
A Department of Labour research team is working with the UPP to evaluate up to 15 of the partnership programmes in order to establish the impact of workplace literacy and numeracy programmes on employees and employers. This evaluation will help to inform further development of workplace learning and further development of government policy.
Dr John Benseman
Dr John Benseman has been involved in adult literacy and learning for over 30 years, mostly as a researcher and evaluator, but also as a teacher and administrator. He has worked in over 150 research projects and written numerous project reports, journal articles, book chapters and monographs as well as co-editing two books on adult literacy and adult education. Before taking up his position as Principal Researcher for the Upskilling project John taught adult education at The University of Auckland for 12 years. Over recent years, John has worked as a specialist advisor and researcher for literacy and numeracy projects for the OECD and UNESCO.
Dr Cathy Wright
Dr Cathy Wright has been working in the education sector for over twenty years. Before moving to New Zealand in 1997, Cathy was a lecturer and consultant at the Open University in the U.K., mainly teaching geography courses and returning-to-study courses for mature students. Since moving to New Zealand, Cathy has taught geography at the Universities of Auckland and Waikato. Subsequently, after gaining ESOL teaching qualifications, she taught in the School of Languages at Unitec for seven years. Cathy has considerable experience as a researcher and evaluator, mainly working on projects relating to education and, most recently, to ESOL teaching and learning. She also has experience of policy-related projects and worked as a policy researcher for Cambridgeshire County Council in England for several years. Cathy has co-authored three series of books for primary and intermediate school students in New Zealand and Australia.
Contacting the office
UPP team members can be contacted by email using the format:
firstname.lastname@dol.govt.nz.
Contact Details
Upskilling Partnership Programme, PO Box 3705, Wellington 6140
56 The Terrace, Wellington Email info@upp.govt.nz Phone +64 4 915 4277 Fax +64 4 915 4242
