I am currently Professor of Education at the University of Huddersfield, where I have worked since 2004. My work focuses on a range of social, economic and educational questions including contemporary and historical education policy; the political economy of education and training; and education and social justice. I am, however, perhaps best known for my research into youth unemployment and the lives marginalized young people, especially those categorised as NEET (not in education, employment or training) or vulnerable to becoming NEET. I am currently working with colleagues from Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, the Republic of Ireland and the UK on the Erasmus+ funded project Improving Transitions, Enabling Results focused on improving vocational learning opportunities for NEET young people. 

I am co-author of two books on marginalised youth: NEET Young People and Training for Work published by Trentham in 2011, and Education, Work and Social Change published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2014. My latest book, Education and Working-Class Youth, co-edited with John Smyth, from Federation University, Australia, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2018. I have also written numerous reports, commentaries and research papers on the lives of NEET young people, including work published in leading academic journals.

I have acted as principal investigator and co-investigator on a range  of significant research projects, including work funded by the Higher Education Academy, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Raymond Williams Foundation, the Leverhulme Trust and the Society for Educational Studies. Methodologically, I am interested in using critical policy analysis, ethnography and other qualitative methods to examine the lived experience of teachers, learners, guidance workers and other practitioners, particularly those working with young people on the margins of education and employment.

I have worked with voluntary groups, trade unions, think tanks and organisations such as Unicef and the EU on questions of education and training for young people. I am an experienced media commentator on questions of youth employment, education and the economy, and I have taken part in a number of television and radio debates on such matters, including programmes broadcast on BBC1 and Radio 4. I have also been a keynote speaker at numerous professional and academic conferences including events in London, Edinburgh, Oxford, Belfast, Dublin, Copenhagen and Sofia.

I am an editorial board member of two leading academic journals: Research in Post-Compulsory Education and the Journal of Further and Higher Education and have acted as a referee for 28 academic journals. I have refereed funding applications for funding bodies based in the UK, Australia, Brazil, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

Currently, I am external examiner for adult education programmes at the National University of Ireland, Galway; previously I have been a course examiner at the Universities of Bolton and Ulster. I am also an experienced supervisor and examiner of doctoral theses and have examined research degrees at the Universities of Bristol, Bolton, Canterbury Christ Church, Huddersfield, Lincoln, Portsmouth, Southampton, Staffordshire and Worcester. I am former course leader of the University of Huddersfield’s Doctor of Education (EdD) programme.

• Education policy
• The political economy of education
• Education and social justice
• Educational and labour market experiences of marginalised youth, and those of teachers, support workers and other practitioners working with young people