I realised recently that I have never really shared much about myself. That’s despite all the many blog posts I’ve written for Aim Higher and elsewhere. So I thought it was time to correct that oversight.
Aim Higher Training exists because I believe investing in people is how organisations actually grow. Not as a slogan, but as something I’ve spent my career testing and proving, one learner and provider at a time.
I’m Jane Hyde-Walsh, founder and director of Aim Higher Training and Development. I set the company up because I wanted to build a training provider that did things properly. Honest about what needs to change, genuinely supportive of the people going through it, and held to the same high standards we’d expect of anyone in this sector.
My Background
My career has taken me through further education quality assurance not from a policy desk, but from inside the delivery itself. Over the years, I’ve worked across many sectors and with many different providers from small TP’s to large colleges. As both an assessor, trainer and IQA, I’ve seen some great practice and unfortunately some bad and downright ugly.
I was fortunate in that I was trained as an assessor and IQA at a best practice centre run within Swindon Borough Council. My guide and mentor was a wonderful woman named Sandra Baldwin. She helped me overcome the barriers I experienced in grasping and really understanding assessment. I learnt about the major importance of quality within any accredited process and this has always heavily influenced my practice. This training helped me to embed the principles of quality, honesty and integrity into the work I do. As a consequence, I’ve never looked back.
I worked with an array of training providers and colleges, before founding Aim Higher Training, and I hold management and learning and development qualifications plus awards in Internal Quality Assurance, teaching and assessment. I’ve supported over 2,500 learners during my career and I’m extremely proud of the 98% success rates my learners have achieved. Moreover, the transformation they’ve experienced in terms of their increased knowledge and confidence has been enormously rewarding. My expertise lies in management and leadership and business skills. However, over the years my passion for quality has increasingly led me to focus on education and training, teaching, and assessment and quality assurance.
I have delivered education and quality consultancy for over a decade. During that time I have worked with several corporate employer led and large apprenticeship providers.
My experiences has had a real impact on the way I work now, with quality always taking the lead. Whatever I’m working on whether I’m training an individual learner or advising a training provider on their quality systems. And I’m always drawing on the same thing: genuine, current experience of what actually helps people and organisations improve, not theory borrowed from a framework document.
Why Education & Quality Consultancy
Building a high-quality training provision isn’t a one-off achievement, it’s an ongoing commitment. Awarding organisation expectations shift, inspection frameworks evolve, and learner needs change. Keeping pace with all of that while still delivering excellent outcomes takes expertise, time, and a clear head, which is exactly what our Education Consultancy service is there to provide.
I work with educators and training providers as a genuine partner. Not as an external auditor parachuted in to tell you what’s wrong. That means I can help with aspects of delivery including:
- Ofsted and EQA preparation – Helping organisaitons understand exactly what inspectors and EQA officers are looking and identifying gaps before they become findings. We can also help build a self-assessment culture that makes quality visible throughout your organisation
- Quality assurance systems – Designing and embedding QA processes that are genuinely useful, not just compliant. Whether you’re starting from scratch or fixing something that isn’t quite working
- Curriculum design & compliance – Building curricula with real intent and sequencing behind them, not just enough to satisfy an audit
- Improving achievement rates – Taking a diagnostic approach across the full learner journey to find where the real barriers sit. We can then make targeted, practical changes that manage the risks and move the numbers
- Transforming performance – Using high level observations of teaching and learning we generate individual performance improvements plans that actually stick.
How I work
No two providers are the same, so the support isn’t either. Some organisations need focused, project-based help, such as a curriculum review, a pre-inspection health check, or a specific piece of QA development. Others prefer ongoing consultancy on a retainer basis, so they’ve got consistent access to an expert view as their provision evolves.
Either way, I’ll take the time to properly understand your organisation before recommending anything, and I’ll be honest with you about what will actually make the biggest difference, even when that’s not the answer you were expecting.
Why work with me
I’m not a generalist consultant who’s read the Ofsted framework cover to cover. I’m a practitioner who has spent years in the delivery, assessment and quality assurance side of this sector, across a genuinely wide range of contexts. I know what good provision looks like because I’ve built it. Aim Higher was founded on strong foundations of quality and as a best practice provider we help our learners achieve outstanding results. All that experience means that I know what inspectors and EQAs are looking for. Because I’ve prepared for those conversations myself, many times over.
If you’re preparing for inspection, tightening your quality systems, or just want an honest, experienced perspective on where your organisation currently stands, I’d genuinely like to hear from you.
Book a free, no-obligation consultation and let’s talk about what Aim Higher Training’s Education Consultancy could do for your provision.