Festive Focus series: Bdaily chats to Lindsey Gibson of NCFE

Can you introduce yourself and your business to our readers?

“I’m Lindsey Gibson, head of group IT at NCFE.

“NCFE is a rapidly growing market leader in education services who strives to be at the forefront of digital transformation within the sector.

“A registered educational charity, we are committed to changing lives through learning and have supported millions of UK learners into employment.

“I’ve been at NCFE for 22 years, spending 18 years of that in a wide range of IT roles and nine years as head of the IT Team.

“I’ve always had an interest in IT since my mam and dad bought me a 48k Spectrum computer for Christmas and I tried to programme my own games.

“The current team size is 39 FTE and we cover a wide range of disciplines including software development, infrastructure, security, data services and service desk.

“Over the 22 years, the ambition of NCFE has grown, as well as the size of the company, which means the projects we work on get more challenging but equally more enjoyable.”

What was your company’s biggest achievement of the year?

“The biggest achievement for the company as a whole was the growth of NCFE Group income, which means we can invest in our current business units, new ventures for the benefits of our learners, and the significant expansion of our workforce.

“As colleagues, we’re very proud that our hard work has paid off and we can clearly see how our effort contributes to the overall success of NCFE.

How would you approach 2018 differently, given the chance?

“Passionate about our purpose and ambitious to achieve our goals, we invest significantly in our large in-house IT teams who drive forward continuous improvement and innovation through the use of the latest technology.

“It’s with this in mind, that we’re committed to attracting, supporting and developing the top talent in the region and beyond.

“My biggest challenge has to be the skills shortage, despite having the investment and exciting projects to work on, we still have vacancies to fill.

“Looking back there are definitely more innovative ways we could have approached recruitment which we’ve started to do now and from this we are seeing a lot more interest in the roles we have to offer.”

What are your company’s plans for the new year?

“The more we achieve our core purpose ‘Create opportunities for success to enrich society’, the more we’re able to help people inside and outside the organisation to have choices in their lives.

“Education helps people of all ages gain confidence, self-esteem, achieve social mobility and find employment, which in turn provides them and their families with a better life.

“Into 2019, we will continue to grow and reinvest into working towards our core purpose, through digital transformation projects that build and shape the future.”

What’s your favourite Christmas song?

“It has to be It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas sung by Michael Bublé. Christmas is not Christmas without the ‘Bublé’!”

Want to get involved with our Festive Focus series? Get in touch at editor@bdaily.co.uk.