About Andy

Required verbage: Any content on this site reflect my own personal views and not those of any of my employers.  Where appropriate, all content is ©Andrew Hollyhead

I am a senior lecturer at Birmingham City University.  Prior to this, I worked for fifteen years in many roles within two large organisations.  This exposed me to a wide variety of different computer platforms and operating systems and different levels of  responsibility.

I was responsible for the payroll and human resource system for over twelve thousand employees, and led the ‘y2k’ project to ensure that this system was upgraded for the new millennium.  This brought  my first exposure to the PRINCE2 project management methodology, and my subsequent training as a PRINCE2 Practitioner.  I have run a number of short external courses on the PRINCE2 methodology, and renewed my Practitioner certificate in 2007.  I am also an Apple Certified Support Professional (OS 10.5).

I am an associate lecturer with the Open University.  This relationship has continued, and though taking a one year leave of absence in 2009, I am still involved in a number of initiatives within the region.  I am still a student of  the Open University, and have hopefully just gained a BA qualification to go with my BSc, and MA in Education.

The MA in Education stemmed from the Postgraduate Certificate in Education recognised by the HE Academy as appropriate for Fellowship membership of their organisation.  My dissertation focused on the use of Project Management within education.

I have taught on the full range of HND, undergraduate and postgraduate courses within the department of computing.  Whilst covering many areas, my particular interest is that of Business Computing, Information in Organisations, Soft Systems Analysis, Project Management and Professional Development.  I teach on the new BSc Business Information Technology and BSc Computer Science.  I have also represented my university abroad, in partnership visits to Hong Kong and Singapore.

I have been the pathway leader for the MSc IT Project Management with International  Business since it’s inception in 2006, and for the 2007-2008 academic year was also the Course Director for the BSc IT Management for Business, an ‘e-skills’ supported degree with a large amount of industrial mentoring, and cross-university collaboration, including the running of fifteen ‘guru’ lectures using video conferencing across the thirteen participating universities.

I am also the external examiner for the ITMB programme and Foundation Degree in BIT at Greenwich University.

Outside work, you’ll find me in front of one of my Apple computers, writing or reading, and maybe, just maybe watching Family Guy or the Simpsons.  Rarely I’ll be polishing my cherished MINI.