Who we are

Martin Smith, Managing Director Bamford Taggs and research consultant.

Formerly: Development Manager Local Business Associations Network, Liverpool; Development Manager Special Initiatives, responsible for development of Intermediate Labour Market initiatives in Merseyside; Community Based Economic Development officer, Liverpool City Council; Principal Planning Officer (Economic Development) with Liverpool and Calderdale Councils; Planning Assistant with Northamptonshire County Council; and Work Study Officer with Reed International.

Relevant experience: Martin has extensive practical experience in the fields of local economic development and in the development/implementation of community and employment development initiatives including Intermediate Labour Market (ILM) projects. This has involved development of the capacity - through learning - of those involved. He played a leading role in the development of the Liverpool and Sefton ILM programme and, more specifically, in the design of the Quantum Leap national pilot project to assist movement of recovering drug misusers into jobs. Outside work Martin was a founder and active member of the Liverpool Friends (Quakers) Unemployment Study Group and the Merseyside Churches Unemployment Committee.

Jim Smith, Bamford Taggs Associate and researcher.

Formerly: Head of Individual Commitment Branch, Department for Education and Employment (DfEE); Head of Adult and Youth Training administration, Department of Employment; Head of Manpower Intelligence and Planning, Manpower Services Commission; Head of Central Analysis Unit, Department of the Environment; Head of Urban and Regional Economics Branch, Department of the Environment; Head of Economic Briefing Branch, HM Treasury.

Relevant experience: in government - economic and policy analysis for transport; housing;, local government finance; training (youth and adult unemployed); as a consultant - financial and economic aspects of lifelong learning and lifelong guidance; publications.

Jim has extensive experience on training policy, administration and development. He set up the division in the DfEE where government responsibility for lifelong learning is now focused. Since leaving government in 1996, Jim has specialised in financial and economic aspects of lifelong learning and lifelong guidance. He was technical adviser for the Guidance Council's development of quality standards for guidance for learning and work during the development phase and, with Andrea Spurling, developed the theory of individual lifelong learning accounts (ILLAs).

Dr Judith Smith, Director and Company Secretary Bamford Taggs Ltd. University tutor.

Formerly: University lecturer in French Studies at Aberdeen and Liverpool Universities and postgraduate researcher at Newnham College Cambridge.

Relevant experience: Judith has extensive experience of teaching adults in arts subjects with the Open University and University extra-mural departments at Liverpool and, currently, Manchester Universities. She has been a Quaker for nearly twenty years and is a trained bereavement counsellor, practising in a voluntary capacity in the field of counselling and befriending. She is developing and researching approaches to autobiographical and spiritual learning through creative writing.

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