Meet the Team

Teamwork makes a real difference. With over 850 staff in a wide variety of different roles, it is imperative that everyone contributes to make Runshaw a truly great place to work and study.

You will find a friendly, supportive and team focused environment in which to start or build your career.

Members of staff answer the question 'What is good about working at Runshaw'?....

"The college ethos reflects the reasons I came into teaching"   "A friendly and safe place with a nice feeling around college"

"Good students who are fun to teach"  "Really friendly staff"

Click on the links below to read more about some of our staff

Gill Davies - Support

Gill is now the Vocational Programme Co-ordinator in the Vocational faculty office, a role of great responsibility. "I'm proud to say I have just received my 20 year Long Service Award. I started at Runshaw in 1983 as a School Clerk and have progressed in my career to my present role of Vocational Programme Quality Co-ordinator. One thing that stands out about working at Runshaw is the support and encouragement I have received from all the managers and colleagues I have worked with - it really is team work at it's best. I'm looking forward to my next 20 years!"  

Zaeem Zaman - Teacher

Zaeem is a teacher of Business Studies and joined us straight from teacher training.

Runshaw College was my first teaching post, I was a Newly Qualified Teacher and joined the Business department.  The Business department at Runshaw College was a well-built, successful department, which at the time made me feel quite nervous.  If anything I believe working within a high achieving department at a successful college has in fact helped me to develop into a more confident and competent teacher.     

As an NQT I was offered many opportunities for training, which I naturally took up.  This included many useful sessions from behaviour management to Child Protection issues. I also successfully completed my NQT year at Runshaw College and gained full QTS. With the support provided to me I have since become an examiner for the OCR exam board, marking scripts for A-level Economics and I have been elected to the Advisory Council at the Institute for Learning.  The advice and support given to me has enabled me to progress as a more experienced and qualified teacher, I feel I am continuing to develop and hope to progress further, whilst enjoying my job as a teacher.’

Jill Gray - Manager

Jill is a long serving member of staff who is one of the senior management team. 'I started in 1994 as a part-time, 2 hours a week, teacher doing hours to enable me to gain my Certificate in Education and became a full time lecturer in Tourism and Hospitality. After 1 year I was course leader in my subject area and then promoted to Head of School Tourism and Leisure, Head of Studies Pre-Advanced followed quickly after and the Advanced Head of Studies. Finally in May 2008 I was successful in my application to my current role as Assistant Principal, joining the College's senior management team. I believe that the main reason I have progressed successfully is due to the support of line managers and lots of opportunities to develop cross college. I also did a Masters degree which College supported me through and I completed last year. It is a bit of a family affair as my children have come to Runshaw and been successful as students. To sum up my experiences I would say that the staff are friendly and supportive and when I wake up in the morning I really want to come to work. This place has incredible teamwork and has staff who are always willing to and can help others.' 

Mark Szolkowksi - Teacher

Mark joined us as a Maths Teacher from a high school where he previously taught Computing and IT. 'After teaching in a school I was keen to try teaching in Further Education and was excited by the opportunity to teach Maths at a grade 1 college. I have found working at Runshaw extremely interesting and with a higher level of subject skills it is more academically challenging. The students are motivated to succeed and I have also found that the students integrate well with each other. In addition it is refreshing how willing they are to help with the many enrichment activities such as the Maths Challenge or Open Evenings. Another major difference I have found is the change from working in a very small team to the much larger team of Maths here at Runshaw. The team here work really well together and the willingness to share resources from day one has been a real bonus, especially after a change of subjects when one needs to build a resource bank. The structure of the team also works well as they give excellent support and you always know who to turn to from the first day.'

Xiuqing Zhang - Support

Xiuqing joined Runshaw as a Library Assistant. She previously worked in Bristol as a visiting lecturer whilst completing her postgraduate studies.

'I like the culture of respecting each other for their individuality, abilities and difficulties. Every member of staff is trying to do their best to support students and in turn they are supported with appropriate training so they can do the job well; it is a nice place to work and learn.'