28


BIG INTERVIEW


Continued from Page 26


She adds: “The group CEO came from the private sector, from BT, and I learned a lot from him and the exec team. Apart from me, the executive team were all pretty much from the private sector and that was where I developed a genuine commercial understanding.”


During her time in Manchester, she also worked closely with the city-region’s elected mayor Andy Burnham on the skills agenda. Collaboration was key, she explains, in the work to meet the needs of employers and 16-18-year-olds.


Lisa says: “Andy Burnham had an ambitious vision to create an integrated technical education system, with levels of specialism, making sure each part of the region had the skills it needed.”


When the work on the project was properly launched she stepped away and made the return to east Lancashire in 2023 as the new principal of the then Nelson and Colne College Group, motivated by the idea of new challenges and a return to Lancashire.


She explains: “I had a fantastic team in Manchester and felt like I’d done everything I could. It was time for me to get out of the way and let my deputy get on with it. I love Lancashire and wanted to come back and really make a difference.”


ARE YOU READY


FOR LANCASHIRE’S BIGGEST BUSINESS CELEBRATION?


FINALISTS ANNOUNCED


19 JANUARY 2026 Awards ceremony:


Thursday 12 March 2026, Winter Gardens Blackpool


redroseawards.co.uk @redroseawards


#RRA26


However, shortly after moving to east Lancashire she found herself facing a very different challenge, when she was diagnosed with grade three breast cancer. “I’d only been here six months,” she says.


Bouts of chemotherapy and immunotherapy followed the diagnosis. There were setbacks on her road to recovery. In Christmas 2023 she found herself in hospital with Sepsis, her immune system “shot”.


Now clear of the disease, the 53-year-old mother- of-one, who is married to artist husband Jamie Holman and lives in Lancaster, says: “It’s a difficult journey but I wouldn’t be as frightened of it if I had to do it again. The support you get from the nurses and consultants is just fantastic.


“I was told early on that there was a positive prognosis. The diagnosis is a lot to take in. You have to process it and really dig deep into your resilience.”


One side-affect of the treatment is her hair, once blonde and long is now short and dark. “I went into chemo with hair like my mum and came out with my dad’s,” she jokes.


More seriously she adds: “I’m a positive, glass half-full person. When I came back to work, I was ready to be a normal, functioning human being again. Coming back was a real positive for me.”


She certainly hit the ground running. For the last 12 months, she has faced the pressure of helping decide how to overhaul the national curriculum and assessment system as one of 12 members of a government-appointed panel.


She was one of only two panel members who represented FE and reveals she felt a “big burden of expectation” in the role “because FE colleagues and learners needed us to get this right”. She also speaks of the intensity of the exercise.


It published its report in November and Lisa says: “It marks a defining moment for post-16 education and for every young person preparing to take their next step into further study, training or work.


“For colleges and training providers, the proposals speak directly to the heart of what we do. Its recommendations are practical, balanced and ambitious – and show a deep commitment to equity, opportunity and excellence for every learner.


“The review lays the foundations for an education system that equips every young person to achieve, to lead and to thrive.”


education and most of those were commuting for more than 40 minutes. We needed to do something to address that.”


To enhance its offer to students, ELLG has embarked in a major multi-million-pound investment programme to create “game- changing” Industry Innovation Hubs (IIHs) centring on a range of subjects including engineering, digital and health.


She says: “We’re incredibly excited about the equipment and environment this substantial investment has allowed us to provide for our students. We have made these investments because we know it is what the area needs.”


ELLG is currently working in partnership with other colleges in the region to deliver the North West’s Technical Excellence College for construction.


And it also developing a partnership with Lancaster University as it looks to further raise the profile and scope of its academic learning.


In March it was officially ranked as the number one Further Education (FE) College in England


The ELLG transformation strategy is a five-year plan. We’re nearly three years into it and we’re already thinking ahead to the next one


The new national curriculum will be implemented in full from September 2028. Lisa says: “I am particularly proud of the strengthened focus on maths and English progress, the value placed on technical and vocational routes at Level 2 and 3, and the recognition of enrichment, confidence and transferable skills as core to a rounded education.”


At the same time as working on the panel she was leading her college group’s transformational name change project. It follows major investments made on the back of strategic plans – all designed to offer more to students and employers, with more to come.


Part of that drive has been to improve the group’s technical education facilities, with a particular focus on the Accrington campus.


Lisa says: “We carried out a strategic review which began in 2023. One of its findings was that 700 students from Accrington were travelling outside Hyndburn for their technical


for A-Level progress. It is also the only college in England to have been rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted for two decades.


The university partnership will enable ELLG to secure guaranteed places on a range of degree courses and guaranteed interviews for medicine for students who want to study at Lancaster. A programme of summer schools is planned.


The next stage of the strategy is to launch East Lancashire University Centre and East Lancashire apprenticeships.


Lisa’s workload is not showing any signs of easing. She also sits on Lancashire’s new skills advisory board, which is helping to guide the recently formed combined county authority.


And, as she explains: “The ELLG transformation strategy is a five-year plan. We’re nearly three years into it and we’re already thinking ahead to the next one.”


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76