Mary began her career in retail personnel management.  She specialised in training and developed her career between local government and the retail sector.  She first moved into independent consultancy with a major contract to manage the Industrial Training Association's Youth Training Programme in the West of Scotland.

Following a family career break, Mary returned to work in local government training as a Senior Training and Development Officer, initially with Strathclyde Regional Council then moving to Inverclyde Council at local government reorganisation.  Mary then restarted her consultancy business, gaining Investors in People advisory contracts with Scottish Enterprise Ayrshire and Renfrewshire.  Mary also continues to provide training services to a range of private and voluntary sector clients.  In addition, she has carried out research projects and evaluations of public sector intervention programmes.

Mary has considerable experience of working with voluntary sector organisations, including Inclusion Glasgow, One Plus, Partners for Inclusion, East Renfrewshire Women’s Aid, Inverclyde Council on Disability, Inverclyde Community Care Forum, Renfrewshire Carers Centre and Renfrewshire Volunteer Centre.

She has experience as a visiting lecturer at the University of Strathclyde Centre for Continuing Education and at a number of FE colleges.

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