Jenni Whitfield, Adult Learners Officer
Email Jenni Whitfield via j.l.whitfield@leeds.ac.uk
Phone Jenni Whitfield: 0113 343 7054
My role
I am responsible for the planning and delivery of public engagement events, taster days and widening participation activity. I am experienced in supporting all aspects of the adult learners journey from pre-entry through to graduation and form part of the working group that developed our ‘Becoming a’ transition programme.
I provide oversight and ensure the continual improvement of all systems and procedures that support the delivery of the centres work. As a key member of administrative staff I support successful cross-team working, the efficient running of the Centre and help to identify ways of effecting change which improves overall performance.
I led the LLC to help achieve the Customer Service Excellence accreditation and continue to support this area of work. I have been an active member of University-wide initiatives focused on customer service including coordinating the Front Desk Network for over five years. In this voluntary role I have raised the profile of the network by designing and delivering ‘Adding value at the front desk’ training to staff in a front-facing role at the University and advised colleagues at Leeds Beckett University on setting up a similar network.
I am part of the Continuous Improvement (CI) Coach programme run by the university. This role involves delivering introduction to CI training to teams, coaching and supporting them to help embed the application of learning in the workplace and assisting with identifying project opportunities.
I am also a qualified PRINCE 2 Practitioner.
Professional memberships
Publications
Noorhan Abbas, Jenni Whitfield, Eric Atwell, Helen Bowman, Thomas Pickard & Aisha Walker (2022): Online chat and chatbots to enhance mature student engagement in higher education, International Journal of Lifelong Education