Get to know Liam, our Head of Quality and Compliance, in our latest Faces of FuturU interview.
In this article, Liam gives us a whistlestop tour of his career to date (and his small menagerie of animals), and outlines his people-first approach to quality. He also shares what brings him joy at work, what he’s looking forward to doing next at FuturU, and how he unwinds after a long day.
Can you start by telling us a little about your career to date?
After leaving school, I worked in hospitality – in bars, cinemas, McDonald’s, that sort of thing. I went to college to do a BTEC in Public Services because I wanted to be a police officer, and then I decided to go to university to do a degree in Psychology.
That led me to doing a PGCE, and in 2006 I became a lecturer of Psychology – I taught GCSE all the way up to Masters qualifications. I did that for 15 years, and completed a Masters in Psychology in 2008 at the same time.
In 2011, an opportunity came up to become an Advanced Practitioner, and that’s when I dipped my toe in the world of quality – I loved helping people and building a rapport with them. That led to a full time role as Assistant Head of Quality at a college, and eventually I became Head of Quality. I worked for small colleges and big groups of colleges with hundreds of staff and thousands of learners. And then, in January 2024, I joined FuturU!
And what’s your role here at FuturU?
It’s my job to ensure we have a high level of quality in all that we do, and that we follow all regulatory compliance requirements from professional and government bodies. That’s across our End-Point Assessments organisation (EPAO), our awarding organisation and our delivery centre.
Why do you like working in quality and compliance?
In my early days of teaching, a lot of the time quality was seen as someone telling you what you were doing wrong. But when I started doing it myself, I realised I could help people by working with them and supporting them to reach their goals. As time went on, I simplified processes and built new ones from scratch, and translated regulatory documents into guidelines people could understand.
Ultimately, I just want to help people, whether that’s our team, partners or customers, and make sure our learners are happy. That’s my biggest motivation.
What does a typical day look like for you?
It depends on the day! I spend a lot of time meeting with my FuturU teammates to see how they’re getting on, and how I can proactively support them and preempt issues.
I also need to keep on top of the latest regulatory government practice – there’s tons happening at the moment. I’m Dyslexic so I find AI helpful for summarising updates to make them more readable.
At the moment, I’m also creating the new governance systems and operational processes we need now that we’ve expanded to become an awarding organisation and delivery centre.
And how do you like to unwind after work?
With a nice glass of whisky! I’m a keen runner, and I’m training for a half marathon in October – I hope to do two or three a year. My wife Charlotte and I are big foodies, and we love visiting new places to eat. Charlotte is an amazing cook and always experimenting with new things, so I get to enjoy that too!
We have three dogs, one cat and seven chickens (with more on the way) who keep us busy outside of work. I’d like to have quails and some fish too, and my wife wants a goat. But we’re pacing ourselves while we renovate our house.
What brings you joy at work?
Seeing everyone – our team, our learners, our partners and customers – succeed. It’s great to see our team’s ideas coming to life, and all the progress we’ve made in the last year.
For example, our Lead IQAs said they wanted to meet with our clients to discuss quality, emerging trends and feedback. We put together a simple process, and they’ve sailed away with it. It’s really helped – our customers are happy, our learners are doing better, and our Lead IQAs are proud of the positive impact they’ve made. It’s little things like that that bring me joy.
What’s been your biggest learning moment in your career so far?
Here at FuturU, I had to go from working at very large organisations to a start-up. It was very much what I expected it to be, very hands on, wearing many hats, but until you’ve actually worked in a start-up, it’s a bit of a learning curve!
Thinking more generally about quality, I’ve learned that you’ve just got to get out there and talk to people. Meet with people, have a coffee, have a chat, ask how you help.
What excites you most about the future of FuturU?
The fact that the possibilities are endless. We’re a social care learning provider, we’re an EPAO, we’re an awarding organisation, we’re a delivery centre – it’s phenomenal. There’s so many opportunities for us to grow education in social care and beyond, and become leaders in this area.
We wouldn’t have gotten here without the hard work of the whole FuturU team. Everyone’s pulled together, and it’s fantastic to work somewhere where everyone is striving for the same thing. We don’t just want to achieve big things – we want to absolutely smash it. It’s brilliant to be a part of that.
