Katy Burns MBE

Katy joined the Board in 2017 as an appointed member. She was appointed Chair of the Board in August 2021 and is also the Chair of the Quality, Standards and Regulation Committee.

Katy was brought up in Scotland, including a period living on the island of Islay. For many years, she travelled with her RAF husband, working as a systems analyst on projects and for charities, before settling in Wales and starting her career in Further Education at Coleg Gwent. After a variety of roles, from lecturer to Campus Director, she became Vice Principal, responsible across the college campuses for curriculum planning, curriculum and business development, quality assurance, the Adult Community Learning (ACL) five county franchise and the Welsh for Adults regional centre.

Since retiring from the college in 2007, Katy has undertaken a variety of projects and roles as a consultant in Wales, England and Scotland. Many of these have involved reviewing and developing quality assurance processes for organisations, including NOCN and the OCN regions, ACL partnerships, YMCA and FE, plus a quality review of Family Learning in Wales.

Through ColegauCymru, Katy has facilitated a number of FE managers’ networks, led and worked on a range of government-funded projects, and supported strategy and policy development.  She led the project to gain recognition for Agored Cymru as a CQFW / QCF Awarding Body and has served on OCN, Agored and FE boards and committees. Recently, Katy has worked with Prevent to train staff to safeguard learners from the threats of harm, including that of radicalisation and terrorism.