GETTING involved as a col lege governor can be a great way of contributing to the community while building up new skills and experience valued by employers.

That is the message from Stephen Sheedy, principal of Queen Mary’s College (QMC), and Andy Harding, chairman of the college’s governors.

The college currently has two vacancies on its voluntary board of governors, which is usually 20- strong and includes two staff gov ernors and two student governors.

Andy, who is general manager of online marketing at Sony Professional Solutions Europe, based in Jays Close, Viables, sees further education and sixth-form colleges such as QMC and Basingstoke College of Technology, as being similar to relatively large businesses.

He said: “College management at board level covers the same sort of issues and involves taking actions that a company board takes.

“QMC’s board defines the col lege’s strategy, setting aims and objectives, and makes sure the principal and staff are accountable for how the college is run.

“It also monitors and evaluates the college performance and plays a part in appointing senior college staff and sets the framework for pay and conditions of more junior staff.”

Andy said the governing body’s work is typically carried out through a series of committee meetings that feed into two main meetings a term, covering topics as diverse as performance manage ment, financial oversight, staffing, marketing and customer service.

“These mirror those found in any organisation and provide a great way to apply experience of your own organisation and also broaden your skills and knowledge.”

“Quite often you can actually find somebody who perhaps is looking to gain experience in this area, and this may be a feature of their career path for them, where they can actually be exposed to these sort of topics at a board level.”

Andy has been a QMC board member since 1995, when he man aged a training department at Sony.

He recalled: “Our HR director sug gested that this was something that I might suit, since I lived locally and have an interest in education and training.”

As the board’s chairman – a post he has held for five years – he has a particular interest in the smooth running of the college as his 17- year-old daughter Beth is in her first year at QMC studying AS lev els in history, politics, psychology and English.

Andy said: “Being a governor has exposed me to things from a man agement perspective that I wouldn’t have got directly at Sony, such as getting involved in HR issues and people management. In some cases, we’ve taken some of the policies we have at Sony and shared them with QMC and vice-versa.

“For example, the way training and development of staff records are kept and maintained has been something that I’ve taken and have used within my own department, and shared that with our HR team as well.”

As principal at QMC, Stephen can vouch for the benefits in having a board that includes a broad range of expertise and experience.

He said: “From my perspective, the experience that governors bring from their working lives to the college can be invaluable.

“People who deal with things every day in their working lives can get hold of projects or approaches to work that we are not familiar with necessarily.”

Anyone interested in becoming a governor should call QMC on 01256 417500.