Rob Allen Deputy Director
With over ten years experience in training, education and development, Rob Allen is now the Deputy Director at Netskills. Educated at Manchester University with a MEng in Microelectronic Systems then at Newcastle University for a PhD in Computing (Parallel Processing), Rob returned to higher education in later years to complete a part time executive MBA programme at Newcastle. Rob also has completed the Netskills/BTEC Professional Development Certificate in Web Development.
Working alongside the Netskills director since 1996, Rob has seen Netskills develop from a fully funded project to a dynamic self-financing business. He has experience in developing bids and proposals for various projects and programmes, and has worked with a wide range of organisations. These include universities, colleges, and learning centres all over the country, plus internationally with the British Council in Sri Lanka, and the European Trade Union Association in Florence and Stockholm.
Rob managed a highly successful three year programme for Public Libraries throughout the UK under the People's Network NOF advanced training, and has more recently overseen a number of important contracts for Netskills, including e-Learning programmes for Adult and Community Learning. He has been involved in a number of e-Business initiatives with both multinational companies and small businesses.
Rob has been a member of a number of high profile national committees and boards, both past and current. These include:
- NIACE/Netskills ACL Senior Managers e-Learning Steering Group
- JISC e-Learning Coordination Group
- JISC Advisory Services Group
- LSC/JISC Specialist Colleges Steering Board
- Netskills/JISC i-skills Steering Group
Prior to working for Netskills, Rob was involved in academic research and before moving to Newcastle worked at ICL developing their next generation computer systems.
Rob is a keen traveller, having visited countries in Eastern and Western Europe, North and South America, Africa, India and South East Asia, and enjoys cooking and eating foreign cuisines. A trumpet player and pianist, he has played with a number of bands and performed at various venues nationally and internationally.
