Alumni Stories – Page 14 – WEST

Graduate appointed Chair of expert committee for Department for Education

24Aug

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Alumni Stories, News

Graduate appointed Chair of expert committee for Department for Education

Angela Noon, University of the West of Scotland graduate and CFO & Executive Director of Siemens UK, has been appointed as the Chair of the Skills and Productivity Board, taking over the role from Stephen van Rooyen. The Skills and Productivity Board (SPB) is an expert committee providing independent, evidence-based advice to ministers at the Department for Education on matters relating to skills and their contribution to productivity. I am delighted to welcome Angela Noon as chair of the Skills and Productivity Board and look forward to working with her. Angela’s respected standing within the business community will be of enormous benefit to the board. Her experience as a leader within a large technology company will also be of particular value to the board and its aims to...

Breedon appoints UWS alumnus Managing Director of GB Contracting

27Apr

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Breedon appoints UWS alumnus Managing Director of GB Contracting

Breedon Group, a leading construction materials group in Great Britain and Ireland, has appointed University of the West of Scotland (UWS) graduate James Haluch as Managing Director of its Great Britain Contracting business reporting to the Group’s Chief Executive. James, who graduated from Paisley Campus in 1992 with a BEng (Hons) in Civil Engineering, has been Managing Director of Highways & Waste Collections at Amey for the last five years. He has grown the business significantly, both in turnover and margin, and has developed a strong service culture with safety and wellbeing at its heart. In all, James has nearly 30 years’ experience in the contracting and highway services industry, including senior positions with Mouchel and EM (Kier) Highway Services, where he established ...

13Apr

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UWS graduate appointed Head of Development at scottishathletics

University of the West of Scotland (UWS) graduate David Fallon has been appointed as Head of Development at scottishathletics, the National Governing Body for Athletics in Scotland. David (30) who has a BA (hons) in sport development from UWS will leave his current role as Head of Development with Scottish Squash in May after impressing during the recruitment process. David commented: “I’m absolutely delighted to be joining such a great organisation and team at scottishathletics. “Athletics is such a broad and accessible sport and the organisation has demonstrated tremendous and consistent growth, but also equal growth. It really is amazing to see the gender balance and equality in the scottishathletics membership.” A graduate from the Lanarkshire Campus in 2013, David gain...

How a return to education sparked a career-change and the founding of a charity

31Mar

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Alumni Stories, Profiles

How a return to education sparked a career-change and the founding of a charity

UWS graduate Carol Burt-Wilson, MBE, is founder and Project Manager of I Am Me Scotland, a community led charity, based in Renfrewshire, but with a national reach. Carol, who completed the BA Human Resource Management degree at UWS Paisley Campus part-time, tells us how her studies at College and University prepared her for building an award-winning charity tackling hate crime and led to her being awarded an MBE. I Am Me Scotland aims to tackle disability hate crime by changing attitudes and behaviours so that disabled and vulnerable people can feel safe in their communities. They have two main initiatives, I Am Me and Keep Safe. I Am Me is a suite of educational resources aimed at changing attitudes and behaviours. This includes the #MakeaDifferenc...

12Feb

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Alumni Stories

Chinese graduate reflects on his time studying chemistry and waste management at UWS

As many of our graduates and friends celebrate the Chinese New Year with their families, MSc Waste Management graduate Fei Guo reflects on his time leaving home in China to study BSc chemistry in Paisley at University of the West of Scotland. Fei, or better known as Jasper, first came to Paisley Campus of the University in 2005 from China to study BSc Chemistry. Following successfully completing his undergraduate programme, Jasper enrolled on the MSc Waste Management with Environmental Management graduating in 2012. Tell us about your time at the University The reason of why I chose UWS and Scotland was because I had a friend who recommended it to me. I really liked the atmosphere of lectures and classes and UWS is not like other universities. The lectures or class had the r...

UWS graduate recognised in the New Year Honours List

5Jan

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UWS graduate recognised in the New Year Honours List

Politics and Social Policy graduate Jamie Kinlochan will receive a British Empire Medal for services to vulnerable people in Scotland during the initial COVID-19 response as part of his role with charity Who Cares? Scotland. I am really humbled to be recognised in this way. The response to COVID-19 left so many people out at sea and I’m incredibly proud of the lifelines that we were able to provide. I’m part of a brilliant wider team at Who Cares? Scotland and it took all of us to develop the vision I had into something that made a difference to people’s lives. I’m incredibly grateful today to my colleagues for their efforts and to our supporters and funders for encouraging us to do something different to help people. Jamie Kinlochan Jamie, who graduated from University of the We...

Alumnus and Radio Presenter Guest Lecture

27Nov

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Alumni Stories

Alumnus and Radio Presenter Guest Lecture

Gordon Duncan, UWS graduate, the voice of Radio Clyde’s Superscoreboard and an established national broadcaster, talks to UWS Lecturer James Mahon and BA 3rd, 4th and MA Journalism students about his career and explains how broadcasting has changed with the rise of new media and social media. https://youtu.be/uHB5fG9Cvko?si=GcidjvXU720Hik5k

9Sep

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From Additional Needs School To A PhD

UWS alumna Dr Julie McElroy talks about her journey from an additional needs school to completing her PhD at UWS in 2017. https://twitter.com/bbcthesocial/status/1069229951302410241 Julie who has a PhD in Assistive Technology from the University, was speaking to BBC Scotland’s the Social as someone who is dependent on technology to lead her life the way she wants to, due to having Cerebral Palsy, which has resulted in walking difficulties along with a speech and hearing impairment, and manual dexterity problems. Julie also completed an BSc (Hons) in Information Technology from UWS, studying at Paisley Campus.

24Feb

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Alumni Stories, News

Graduate Wins Love Island

A University of the West of Scotland (UWS) graduate has been crowned the winner of the first ever Winter Love Island in a dramatic live final. Paige Turley, who graduated with a BA (Hons) degree in Commercial Music from UWS, shared the £50,000 cash prize with Finn Tapp, receiving 44.52% of the final vote on 23 February 2020. Paige, who described herself on the show as "loud, boisterous and fun", is a singer-songwriter who started her music career in her early teens. After successfully reaching the semi-finals on Britain's Got Talent in 2012 with a rendition of 'Skinny Love', Paige went onto study commercial music at UWS Ayr Campus, graduating in 2018. https://youtu.be/CAqR64dczvs?si=jVNhLsuh3N7RxB8V Love Island is a popular ITV show where a group of men and women live toge...

Graduate is NHS’s only male midwife in the West of Scotland

4Jun

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Alumni Stories

Graduate is NHS’s only male midwife in the West of Scotland

UWS Midwifery graduate Kenny Gibson was featured recently in the Evening Times talking about his career and life on the ward as the only male midwife in the West of Scotland. Kenny, who is based at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley alongside his wife Arlene, also a midwifery graduate from UWS, is one of only a handful of male midwives working in the NHS in Scotland. When I started there were 49,000 midwives in the UK and 109 were men. There were six registered in Scotland when I qualified. It is very much a female world.” Kenny graduated in 2009 from UWS Paisley Campus re-training following various jobs. Kenny says: “I had been managing a pub and then it went out of business and I thought I need to re-train.” “Medicine would have taken too long but I wanted to be establ...