Specialisterne NI welcomes Brian Byers to its Voluntary Board

The team at Specialisterne NI are delighted to welcome new Directors to its voluntary board. Please join us in welcoming Brian Byers.

It’s hard for me to explain how excited I am to join the Specialisterne team from both a personal and professional perspective. 

Having worked in career development and employability for over 15 years, with the last 12 years with Ulster University I hope I can bring a lot of experience and knowledge to how Specialisterne develops and expands its amazing services whether that’s programme development, employer engagement or helping to further expand other activities that Specialisterne have been driving.  My roles in Ulster University have been varied but have always focused on employability and career development. I currently manage Employability Services across our campuses but have also led in areas such as employer engagement, curriculum development, the management of our University Skills Award (Ulster EDGE Award). At present there is lot of focus on maximising the use of technology in a way that meets the needs of our large and diverse student community.

From a personal perspective, as a parent of a 10 year old boy who happens to be autistic I can’t wait to be part of the development of services and activities that will help him and his peers to fulfil their potential and critically, to feel more connected with each other. Having gone through the struggle of helping him access the right and appropriate education I now look towards his future and what opportunities and obstacles he and his peers will face and that’s why I feel so passionate about what Specialisterne has and is continuing to do. I am not sure there is a stronger motivation to support the work of Specialisterne than that. I can’t wait to get started.