D&T Association Expands

Published 18th May 2022

New staffing to meet the demands set by exponential membership growth

Four years ago, the Association's membership body stood at just a fraction over 9,000, a position it had been in for several years. First and foremost, we are a membership organisation, and we primarily exist to meet the needs of our members nationally. Just last week, I am delighted to say that we broke through the 31,000 mark and at current growth rates, 40,000 by the end of the year is a realistic target.

The drivers for this growth have been many and varied. We have consolidated our membership offer, reducing from twenty-eight membership categories to our current eight. This has allowed us to focus in on the needs and aspirations of each of these categories, and we have adjusted the offer following feedback from members. Almost 95% of our resources are now free to download for members; another significant change made within the last three years.

Why is this important, you may ask?

As a registered charity, we do not receive any funding from the Government but instead must generate our income, effectively operating as a small business. Efficiency is essential here as no small business can sustain its operations while living on its limited reserves; break-even is essential if we are to continue to grow, flourish and offer even more support to design and technology teachers, departments, and students nationally. 

For the above reasons, I am delighted to announce that over the next few months, our staffing numbers will increase so that we have the expertise and capacity on board to continue to meet member's needs and to continue the push for design and technology to be an option for more young people nationally.

Lucy Nimmo has already joined us as a Customer Service Administrator. Lucy is front line in processing new members and getting them onto the system as quickly as possible; she will also be working in membership support, ensuring any queries or requests for support are answered or passed on to the appropriate staff member.

Laura Martin recently joined us as our Digital Designer and Content Creator. Laura has a strong background in graphic design and content creation and is already positively impacting our media channels, ensuring articles, inspirational case studies and initiatives for schools and students are communicated widely. Laura will be working closely with Willy Adam to design graphical content for the print and online magazines.

As we seek to increase our training capacity with schools and teachers nationally, we are delighted that Ryan Ball will soon be joined by two additional Curriculum Trainers.

Lol Conway is a D&T teacher and College Leader at Finham Park School in Coventry. Lol joins us next month in a part-time Curriculum Training role while continuing to teach part-time at Finham Park. She is looking forward to delivering training across the country while also assisting with course and resource creation.  

Finally, Paul Woodward, currently teaching in Rugby School, Thailand, will be joining us from August 1^st as Curriculum Trainer. Paul is well known in the D&T community and is prolific in resource creation through the TES. Paul will help design and deliver our national training programme and will help to develop our school, MAT and Trust INSET schedules.

All the above have been appointed through a detailed and comprehensive recruitment programme, and we are delighted to welcome them all to the Association. All understand the challenges faced by the subject and schools nationally and are well-placed to support you as we seek to inspire the next generation of designers, innovators and entrepreneurs.

Tony Ryan

Chief Executive Officer