RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Our consultants are renowned business, management, and humanitarian leaders, with esteemed records of accomplishment and achievement at the highest levels of local, national and international policies, development efforts, and leadership and management theory and practice. Majority of our consultants are experienced researchers and policy advisers, with demonstrated abilities to:

  • use research to improve how policy problems are analysed and policy solutions formulated;
  • utilise a wide range of conceptual, qualitative and quantitative skills to understand organisational issues;
  • communicate, in person and in writing, with diverse audiences, and relate equally well to policy, practitioner and academic groups;
  • support staff to value and use research as an integral part of their professional practice;
  • deliver projects to time and budget, and produce cogent, high quality and fit-for-purpose outputs and outcomes.

As consultants, our fundamental commitment is engaging critically with ‘evidence-informed organisational or business practices’. We know how to create and mediate research evidence; ideas and values for both policy and practice environments; and how to help policy-makers and practitioners appraise and use quantitative and qualitative evidence in managing their priorities for improvement programmes and development.

Our main research expertise is in the area of

  • Online Information Sharing
  • Sustainable Development
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Senior and Middle Leadership
  • Research and Publication
  • Education
  • Leadership Policy as a tool to Inspire, Develop and Empower
  • National professional Qualification for Educational leaders and Managers
  • Employment and Training
  • Economic Development

Our research projects include large-scale commissioned evaluations of local, national and international programmes, innovative research and development studies, in-depth qualitative and quantitative projects and reviews of particular research fields.

As researchers, our consultants have built extensive portfolio of work for a variety of clients, including Ministries of Education overseas and many individual local education authorities and schools. We are looking for a short secondment from the World Bank to create a set of online resources for schools/colleges and teacher/head teacher/principal development.

As academia, we continue to write and publish for a wide variety of audiences – policy makers, managers, academics, students – and to give seminars and conference presentations.

Recent consultancy projects

We have undertaken a variety of commissioned work, including:

 

An evaluation of equal access and the provision of high-quality learning in higher education improvement programmes:  A case- study of a technology College in West Midlands

Designing and conducting an independent evaluation of an innovative bi-lingual multicultural college project, for save the youngsters in Cameroon.

Inclusive design resources-The project saw the development of a website originally created for design students and their tutors, professional designers, design managers and policy makers. It was an online resource drawing together key contextual information; examples of products, services, buildings, business practices and inspirational design concepts.

New African Leaders Contributions of Africans in Birmingham from 1950. Traditional Stories of Africans in Birmingham, United Kingdom, raised important questions on the nature of identity, integration, personal leadership, emotional intelligence, achievements and contributions, community leadership, the nature of African leadership and for readers to reflect on the potential to further enhance the on-going professional growth and development of Africans in both developed and developing countries.

Effectiveness of School Leadership and Management Development in Cameroon: A Guide for Educational Systems, Schools and School Leaders considered a number of key epistemological, ontological and methodological questions exploring the effectiveness of school leadership and management development training programmes for school leaders in a range of settings, for a range of people, for the quality of data and subsequent findings and for the production of rigorous social educational leadership development research. Some consideration has also been given to practical concerns associated with the approach such as the importance of management and Leadership Development Programmes supporting school leaders to become effective leaders supporting school effectiveness?  How do aspiring heads and head teachers perceive their own development opportunities specifically in relation to their impact on enhancing: knowledge outcomes; expertise (behaviour) outcomes, and educational system level outcomes?  Effectiveness of Current Management and Leadership Development Arrangements in Cameroon in preparing prospect leaders to become effective head teachers and a Framework for the Improvement of Management and Leadership Development Arrangements.

Dr Frederick Ebot Ashu has also been awarded a Commonwealth Professional Fellowships to provide a working prototype journal for supporting quality education through effective leadership and management. The Journal for Educational Leadership and Management aims to enhance the effectiveness of educational leadership, management and administration  to support infrastructure, that will enable educational leaders and managers, principals and heads of the institutions, vice-chancellors, deans,  heads of the departments, lecturers, doctoral researchers,  teachers, students and academics researching in the field and other end-users to search a database of journals and to access, from the desktop, the full text, in secure format, of electronically stored articles, following selection from  educational leadership journals. It will also enable individuals, schools, higher education institutions (HEIs) and other organisations in partnership with the project to promote and increase usage of the journal output and presents international knowledge and initiatives designed to help educational administrators and institutions.

Our consultancy fees range between £200 and £750 per day, by negotiation depending on the nature of the work.