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Last updated 18th April 2024

Currently, I am Professor of Education at the University of Huddersfield, where I have been since 2004. My research focuses on a number of related themes including education policy, the history of education, and the sociology of education. I am, however, perhaps best known for my research into youth unemployment and the lives of marginalized young people, especially those categorised as NEET (not in education, employment or training) or vulnerable to becoming NEET. From 2019-2022 I worked with colleagues from Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Ireland, Romania and the UK on the Erasmus+ funded project Improving Transitions, Enabling Results which is focused on improving vocational learning for NEET young people. Currently, I am a member of the European Advisory Board for CLEAR - a major European-funded project, led by the University of Muenster, investigating the construction of learning outcomes for disadvantaged groups in eight European countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain).    

I am co-author of two books on marginalised youth: NEET Young People and Training for Work published by Trentham and Education, Work and Social Change published by Palgrave. I have also written numerous reports, commentaries and research papers of the lives of NEET young people. In 2018, I co-edited Education and Working-Class Youth with John Smyth, from Federation University, Australia and, my latest book, on education and work in Britain's former coalmining communities was published in October 2022. 

I have been involved in a range  of significant research projects, including work funded by 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 learners, teachers 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 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 keynote speaker at numerous professional and academic conferences including events in London, Edinburgh, Oxford, Belfast, Dublin, Copenhagen, Porto, Sofia and Bucharest. I have refereed funding applications for funding bodies based in the UK, Australia, Brazil, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

I am an experienced supervisor and examiner of doctoral theses. I have supervised over twenty theses through to completion and examined research degrees at the Universities of Bristol; Bolton; Canterbury Christ Church; Huddersfield; Lincoln; Liverpool; Murdoch, Australia; Newcastle; Portsmouth; Southampton; Staffordshire; UCL; and Worcester. I am also former course leader of Huddersfield’s Doctor of Education (EdD) programme.