Federation of Awarding Bodies announces Paul Eeles as new Chair and Terry Fennell as Vice Chair

The Federation of Awarding Bodies (FAB) is delighted to announce the appointment of Paul Eeles and Terry Fennell as Chair and Vice Chair, respectively, of the membership organisation for vocational awarding bodies.  
The announcement of their appointments was made at the Annual FAB Conference, which takes place at the Marriott Hotel in Leicester (20 and 21 October 2016).  
Chief Executive of FAB, Stephen Wright, said he was delighted to be working with Paul as the new Chair and Terry as the Vice Chair:  
“I have already enjoyed working with them both as Board members and we all share the same passion to provide excellent practical support to members as well as driving the sector forward, strengthening its position among policy makers and helping to provide learners with the excellent technical and professional qualifications that they need.”  

The new Chair and Vice Chair, both co-opted members of the FAB Board since 2014, before being fully elected to the Board in 2015, will take on responsibility for the governance of FAB and ensuring the organisation serves the needs of its 125 members.   

Paul Eeles’ experience working in the further education and skills sector spans almost 30 years and includes appointments as Director of Sector Reforms at AELP and most recently as Chief Executive of emfec and ABC Awards. This year, Paul led the formation of the Skills and Education Group, a charity committed to uniting education and skills-orientated organisations with similar values.  

The Skills and Education Group comprises awarding bodies ABC Awards and ASDAN, as well as further education charity emfec which supports colleges in the East Midlands and provides the regional Association of Colleges service.  

Commenting on his new appointment as Chair, Paul said:  
“I am pleased to be taking on the role of Chair at FAB during this turbulent time in the further education sector.   
“While the sector continues to face challenges in light of interminable changes to post-16 educational policy, it is our role at FAB to ensure that we are offering the best service to our members in terms of promoting their needs and raising the profile of vocational education.  
“I look forward to working with Stephen, Terry, the staff and the Board to ensure we provide this service to the best of our ability during this time of change.”

Terry Fennell is Group Operations Director of the Food and Drink Training and Education Council Group of Companies (ftc) and has previously worked at AELP and Improve, the sector skills council for food and drink manufacturing.  

ftc is a food focused skills charity incorporating FDQ, a specialist awarding body for qualifications in the food industry, and the Institute of Meat, a professional body for people in the meat industry.   

Paul and Terry will replace Fiona Ballantine Dykes and David Grailey following the ending of their terms of office as Chair and Vice Chair.