The Mindful Education team

We support both new and existing partners in the planning and implementation of their curriculum strategy for professional courses and apprenticeships. We work closely with college leadership teams, awarding bodies and the rest of the Mindful Education team to collaborate in delivering a high-quality, flexible, and valued experience to learners, whilst meeting our partners’ growth ambitions and commercial requirements.

We also represent Mindful Education at key industry and partner events and meet with senior stakeholders at colleges and training providers nationwide to explore new partnerships.

The partnerships team is led by Director of Partnerships and Education, Raj Kumaran. Raj previously worked within the Higher and Further Education sectors for over 25 years, the last 15 of which were at the highest level of management. In 2011, Raj became the first person in the UK to lead a private college through the Integrated Quality and Enhancement Review (IQER) by QAA to a successful outcome. In 2015, Raj joined Mindful Education as a co-founder.

We provide extensive support to, and work in close collaboration with, our partner curriculum teams to plan and launch Online and On Campus courses and apprenticeships throughout the academic year. As such, we work across the three areas of Planning, Delivery and Administration, playing an instrumental role in each of our partnerships.

We also ensure that every learner is fully supported to succeed, from their first enquiry about the course, right through to achieving their qualification.

The team is led by James Phillips-Hicks, Head of Operations. James has previously held senior positions in FTSE 100 companies with a particular focus on apprenticeships and workforce development and is Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute.

We work with our partners’ marketing and admissions teams, supporting colleges with learner recruitment work for Online and On Campus courses and apprenticeships. As part of our service to partners, we create bespoke, partner-branded videos and print collateral alongside copy and images for websites and social media posts. Complementary to their marketing initiatives, we set up and run paid online adverts to generate enquiries and applications on our partners’ websites, and are always on-hand to provide support and share our expertise.

We also manage Mindful Education’s online presence, create brochures and other collateral for the company and manage in-person and online events that we attend to meet people in the sector.

The team is led by Matt Brown, Director of Marketing and Communications. Matt joined Mindful Education in 2018 with 20+ years’ previous commercial and marketing experience in the private and public sectors, including working as a Director of Marketing at a successful FE College for six years.

We work with employer engagement and business development teams at our partners, supporting them to grow their work with employers, whether that be building new relationships or expanding on existing ones. We join our partners for employer events, meetings and pitches, and provide unlimited bid writing and tender support. We assist with key employer account management and produce Apprentice Engagement Reports for our partners to share with employers.

We also run a telemarketing campaign to generate employer meetings and attend in-person apprenticeship and industry events across the country. The opportunities generated from these activities are shared with our partners.

The team is led by Katherine McKenna, Head of Employer Engagement. Katherine joined Mindful Education in 2020, having previously trained and qualified as a solicitor at the international law firm CMS, advising clients in the media and entertainment industries. Katherine is a graduate of the University of Warwick and the University of Law.

We write all materials for our courses and apprenticeships and collaborate with our Quality Assurance and Production teams to create high-quality video lessons. We also continually review the syllabus across each subject and update our VLEs to enhance student learning and engagement.

The curriculum team is divided by subject areas and led by experts who are responsible for co-ordinating course production and ensuring the highest academic standards across their subjects. Cath Littler is Head of Learning – Accounting, Barbara Strachan is Head of Learning – Law and Deborah Gargan is Head of Learning – Management, HR and Business Administration.

We oversee the production process of text-based content for learners from conception through to publishing to ensure overall cohesiveness and consistency. We work closely with our Learning, Production, Creative and Digital teams to ensure it is clear and editorially sound at every stage.

As such, we collaborate with our academics and writers to develop content for the overall structure of our lessons. We also copyedit video scripts, and Virtual Learning Environment text and materials for accuracy and style.

The team is led by Penny Jones, Head of Content Development. Penny has more than 18 years’ experience working in education, both as a teacher and in content development. Prior to joining Mindful Education, Penny was Head of Editorial for an EdTech provider.

We are a large team combining both creative and production functions. Our key focus is on creating courses that inspire and motivate our learners.

In creative, we work across the areas of design, animation, and content creation. We work in partnership with our academic and editorial teams to produce our award-winning video content and expertly crafted learning materials for each of our courses.

In production, we work across the areas of planning, management, and filming to ensure all media and digital content is ready for when our courses go live. When producing material for each course, we work in collaboration with our academic, editorial, creative, and digital teams to ensure each element – from scripts through to individual animations and questions – is completed on time and to the highest standard.

Creative is led by Rob Slegtenhorst, Creative Director and a company co-founder. Rob previously worked in senior development and motion graphics positions in agencies across Europe and the UK, working on several large and award-winning media projects. Helen Duffy is Head of Production and Film. Helen joined Mindful Education in 2017 with 14 years’ experience in events and production, of which eight years was spent at education charity Into Film.

We are responsible for the management of Mindful Education’s key online platforms – our award-winning Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs), and the internal dashboard, Arc. We design and create a bespoke VLE for each course to ensure an outstanding online experience for every learner. We track this through Arc – which allows us to manage all VLEs and gain an insight into how our learners are performing.

We have full stack engineers who work on building features and maintaining our codebase, whilst our content managers and testers add content to the VLEs, work on the delivery of courses, and test everything that is built before it is released. We also work closely with our Operations team to manage learner enrolments and the delivery of our courses.

The team is led by Michael Verhaag, Director of Technology. Prior to joining Mindful Education, Michael worked as a web developer for a large marketing agency, building bespoke websites for national brands.

We are responsible for Mindful Education’s staff recruitment, employee development and retention, and HR compliance and administration. We work across all teams and support them with all their human resources needs, including filling new and current roles through attracting top-tier talent. We help identify suitable training and development programmes for teams and individual employees, and ensure they have access to advice and guidance whenever they may need it.

We also manage Mindful Education’s policies, benefits, and employee relations to create a supportive and compliant work environment for all.

The team is led by Zofia Benfield, Head of Talent. Zofia joined Mindful Education in 2021 with previous human resources experience in the financial services industry, including working as Head of Human Resources for Transact for 20 years.

We work with the finance and MIS teams at our partners to request, process and advise on fee and funding values for learners to bill for our services. We offer our partners advice on funding values and sources, as well as the financial modelling they may need for internal forecasting purposes. We have experience working with many partners across the UK, helping them to meet the financial requirements of their learners and their own organisations.

We also manage Mindful Education’s financial operations and performance, managing expenditure and cash needs within the business.

The team is led by Ed Whittle, Head of Finance. Prior to joining Mindful Education, Ed trained and qualified as both a Chartered Accountant and a Chartered Tax Advisor with the international professional services firm EY, advising multinational companies. Ed holds a BA from the University of Cambridge.