Decisions at 18 2010 - Flexibility for careers of the future20 April 2010 - 22 April 2010

Mr Mervin Dadd

Presenter Organisation

Cogent

Presenter Job

Director, Marketing and Communications

Sessions & Workshops

What do employers want? Career pathways and industry LMI

Biography

Mervin has been Director of External Affairs, Marketing and Communication for Cogent, the Sector Skills Council for the Science-based industries, (Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, Nuclear, Oil and Gas, Petroleum and Polymers) for five years. He is also responsible for Cogent's STEM and careers policy development and activity.

Mervin began work as an illustrator, a painting restorer and a portrait painter, after graduating from Falmouth Art School in 1983, and Wimbledon Art College in 1979.

After five years of sporadic success (supported by odd jobs as a writer, sub editor and in construction and driving and cake decoration), his wife persuaded him to put down the paintbrush and pick up the pen full time.  He joined the Government Information and Communications Service as a writer starting with the Ministry of Agriculture in 1988, working on farm and food safety programmes including rabies campaigns, and sub-editing classic tomes such as Invertebrates of the British Isles.

His interest in careers and youth education and skills policy came after a move to the advertising and publicity team of the Training Agency (Employment Department) in 1989 where he saw Government intervention making a real difference to young people, including the Modern Apprenticeships, Youth Training, and Learning Technologies programmes.

He was seconded to the Welsh Office Press Office in 1996 for six months and worked on health, safety and policing and constitutional issues and returned to DfES to start work on Individual Learning Accounts.

In 1997, Mervin moved to the Ministry of Defence as Head of Corporate Communications for the MoD Police, including secondments to report on and promote UN peace keeping and security services. He worked on several Official Secrets Acts Investigations, major UK and international defence fraud cases, organised internet  abuse cases and was part of a team put together to analyse and prepare for security  threats to the UK after 9/11.

Mervin and his MOD team delivered media and crisis communications training courses for MOD police and Home Office officers, and chaired the eastern regional Media officers Crisis Communications Group. He managed the force's UK-wide community liaison work, and ran major careers and recruitment exhibitions, including the Royal Tournament Show for three years. He joined Norfolk Constabulary in 2001 as Head of Corporate Communications with similar responsibilities, including the campaign to support the force's successful Operation Harrier crackdown on burglary and car crime. He joined Cogent shortly after its launch as a Sector Skills Council, following the amalgamation of industry training organisations in 2004.