Professor David Ashton
David Ashton is currently an Honorary Professor at Cardiff University, Emeritus Professor at Leicester University and an Associate of the Centre for Skills Knowledge and Organisational Performance (SKOPE). After experience in the UK manufacturing industry he was appointed Lecturer in Sociology at Reading and subsequently Leicester Universities where, in the late 1980s, he established the Centre for Labour Market Studies. He has been appointed Visiting Professor at the Universities in the USA and Canada.
David has developed a highly respected expertise in international comparisons of skills systems, globalisation, skill formation and workplace learning organisational strategies and HPW. He is the UK's recognised authority on international comparative skills work and has published widely on this and his other research interests. Two notable publications include Skills Abroad: A comparative assessment of international policy approaches to skills leading to the development of policy recommendations, and a Catalyst publication both for the SSDA. A previous member of the SSDA's Expert Panel he was a strong performer at meetings and made valuable and well respected contributions to the SSDA in this forum and beyond, for example in policy deliberations with the Leitch Review of Skills team.
He has provided consultancy services in the field of training, human resource development and high performance working to a range of private and public sector organisations. He has also acted as consultant to a wide range of government departments in the UK, including the Cabinet Office, Department of Trade Industry, Department for Education and Skills, SSDA and the Welsh Assembly and overseas for Departments of the South African and Singapore Governments and various sections of the European Union. At the international level he has acted as a consultant for the United Nations International Labour Organisation and the World Bank.