Ben Wakeford

Experience

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  Various (British Council Accredited) English Language Teaching institutions

  Jan 1998 - Dec 2003

  English Language Teacher

  • Conducting EU funded teacher training/methodology courses• Planning and developing ELT lessons and materials.• Developing and presenting weekly staff training sessions.• Advising on, and participating in, school social programme.• Mentoring overseas students academically and personally.• Teaching classes at all levels (incl. CPE, CAE, FCE, TOEIC, TOEFL, IELTS, English for Business, Travel, Communication, Academic purposes etc….).

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  British Council

  Jan 2004 - Apr 2011

  • Liaising with Campus (SAP based student lifecycle Management system) end users (Registrars, Teaching Centre Managers, CS Staff) to establish business processes and technical requirements thereof. • Writing functional specifications to communicate said requirements to ABAP (code) developers.• Testing developments throughout the development life cycle up to release to the live system. • Ensuring that developments are delivered on deadline and to requirements.• Providing 2nd level support to end users, analysing, explaining, providing solutions to, problems.• Configuring and maintaining master data within the system in response to change/service requests. Show less • Implementing worldwide SAP rollout as part of British Council SAP training team. Worked in the UK offices plus Mexico, Italy, Chile, Egypt, Spain, Ukraine, Poland, Hong Kong, and Burma.• Carrying out context specific pre and post go-live training evaluation/needs analysis. • Developing Training Materials (Power-Points, SAP Tutors, End User Guides, System Exercises, Process games, Frequently Asked Questions etc.) for the classroom and for self access.• Creating and maintaining master data for bespoke training system to match step by step exercises.• Delivering end-user training in SAP; Procurement, Projects, Sales & Distribution, Finance, Controlling, BI & R3 Reporting, Travel & Expenses, Campus, HR and Contract Accounting. • Delivering (role based) classroom training for: senior management, finance (local & hub), project managers, exams/teaching centre managers, (senior) teachers, registrars & customer service staff.• Delivering technical training (e.g. system design, navigation, problem identification & solving) and non-technical training (e.g. communication strategies, conflict resolution) to Power Users whilst coordinating and managing their support work for the initial weeks after go-live in country.• Personally providing post go-live support including floor-walking, one to one training, workshop training, consultancy, process development etc. for all on site staff, including senior management.• Providing ongoing consultancy and advanced training to regions post implementation. Show less • Managing, promoting, assessing Comenius European School Partnerships.• Organising, recruiting for, presenting at, UK & European contact seminars.• Organising, recruiting for, administering, Comenius European Preparatory Visits.• Advising on and evaluating grant applications for European funded projects.• Ensuring contract compliance, business risk, and audit compliance for said projects.• Managing one permanent member of staff and two temporary administrative assistants.• Monitoring/reporting on spending /invoicing against prep visit/contact seminar budget via S.A.P. Show less

  • English & Exams Process Analyst

    Apr 2010 - Apr 2011

  • SAP Implementation Trainer

    Jan 2008 - Mar 2010

  • Project Delivery Manager

    Jan 2004 - Dec 2007
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  Excel English

  Apr 2011 - Sept 2011

  English Language Teacher

  Delivering Teacher Trainer Courses for English Language teachers from around the globe.Teaching Adults and Children English as a foreign language at all levels of proficiency.

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  Richmond Publishing / Español Santillana

  Oct 2011 - Feb 2013

  ELT Sales Consultant

  Responsibilities: As with Macmillan Education role, but without responsibility for distributor relationships.Notable Achievements: Conducted over 500 sales visits in 2012. Achieved significant increase in UK sales.

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  Macmillan Publishers Ltd

  Mar 2013 - Feb 2016

  ELT Consultant

  * Working with the Regional Manager Northern Europe to increase sales across the region by; managing local distributor relationships, organising and attending marketing/events, maintaining key client and stakeholder relationships, targeting new business, monitoring sales via Midas etc.* Conducting targeted sales visits to a range of ELT institutions (schools, colleges, Universities) building relationships, dealing with follow up activity, using the Nexus to plan/ record visits etc.* Regularly and accurately reporting to marketing and editorial colleagues on competitor activity, market trends and developments while identifying key publishing gaps and alerting editorial colleagues to such opportunities. Working with marketing colleagues on offers, promotions etc.* Giving online and face to face presentations/demonstrations of digital products and components, being the main point of contact for Macmillan English Campus customers across the region. Show less

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  British Council

  Feb 2016 - now

  Working to plan, manage and implement British Council's strategic engagement with IELTS Supplier Schools and Agents globally. Supporting the British Council’s UK-managed IELTS stakeholder activity, and the IELTS UK & Ireland business in particular. Winning and building recognition for IELTS. Managing key IELTS stakeholders. Managing a series of IELTS Stakeholder Information seminars. Delivering stakeholder hosted briefings. Participating at key market events.

  • IELTS Global Relationship Manager - Supplier Schools & Agents

    Jan 2019 - now

  • IELTS Stakeholder Relationship Manager

    Feb 2016 - Dec 2018