As Co-Founder and Managing Director of a growing social enterprise Resilience Learning Partnership, Shumela Ahmed is a teacher and educator by trade and an activist at heart. As a real life example of the transformation education can bring to someone's life, she has dedicated her academic and professional career to helping others realise this too. As an adult returner to education and as someone who left school at aged 14 she knows first hand the power that education holds in providing the tools for those from disadvantaged backgrounds to succeed in life. As the leader of a Lived Experienced led organisation its Shumela’s ambition to see Lived Experience as the dominating force within public policy design across the UK.
She feels passionately that the key to achieving this ambition lies within the learning and development of staff and adopting a new approach that has Lived Experience expertise at the heart of it. She is also a passionate advocate of the renumeration of those with Lived Experience involved in public policy design and the recognition that this expertise brings a dynamic to L&D work not currently utilised in the sector.
As a co-author of the National Trauma Training Plan, Shumela continues to target Resilience Learning Partnership’s core activities towards enhancing the learning and development of staff across local authority, 3rd and private sector organisations. As well as being a co-author of the National Trauma Training Plan, Shumela advises Scottish Government in the continued development of the National Trauma Training Programme and the implementation of Trauma Informed Practice across Scotland.
Shumela Ahmed - Resilience Learning Partnership