Charles Dobson

Biography

Charles’s industrial experience is in IT and he has experience of IT projects in multiple areas of industry including process control, application development, business process re-engineering, and agile development.  Charles’ final role before joining academia was leading a Project Office that had project, programme and portfolio responsibilities, developing the team from supporting projects to delivering portfolio planning to assist organisation decision making.

This experience has enabled Charles to develop a deep understanding of the role that Projects play in organisational success, and also the challenges faced when balancing the demands of multiple projects alongside business as usual activities.

Charles is a Principal Lecturer for Project Management and Industrial Skills, and his remit includes the strategic development of the project management portfolio of courses, working with employers to identify and develop new areas of provision to enable them to succeed in the delivery of their projects.

Charles has over 25 years’ experience in Education and has developed many industry-facing courses. He specializes in interpreting the requirements of organisations and translating these into coherent programme structures.  He aims to develop graduates, who are able to make a positive contribution to their employers from an early stage in their career.

Qualifications and memberships

Academic Qualificaitons

MSc E-Commerce

Post Compulsory Certificate in Education

BSc (Hons) Information Technology

Professional Qualifications and Associations

Fellow of EEUK Entrepreneurship Educators UK

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

APMP Level D Award - Association of Project Management

Member of the APM (MAPM)

Academic and research interests

Technology and its role in the workplace

The application of new and emerging technologies to current problems in a social, business and environmental context

Exploring the effective use of IT, examining why people choose the technology solutions that they do, and identifying aspects of dependence, overuse and missed opportunities

Project Management as a profession and a specialist skill and career choice in its own right

Evaluating the impact of project management education and training on project performance within an industrial setting

Publications

Wiscombe, C.A., Dobson, K.C, Carter, H. (2015) 'Living the Dream', a holistic approach to Social Enterprise Leadership. Submission to IEEC2015 at Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford, Essex, UK.

Ryder ,S., Dobson, K.C., Greenwood, A. & Wiscombe, C.A. (2015) Understanding the Quality of the Student Experience in Blended Learning Environments: focussing on student engagement as a learner need. Quality Criteria in Blended Learning Conference 27th - 29th August 2015, Malaga, Spain. part of the Multilateral Grundtvig Project 'Quality in Blended Learning'.

Dobson, K.C, Wiscombe, C.A. & Carter, H. (2015) The Aspiring Leadership Programme v2 - an example of innovative curriculum design. A partnership with the Brathay Trust. University of Cumbria Learning and Teaching Fest 2015: Supporting the 21st Century Student on June 29th 2015 at Carlisle Fusehill Street Campus, University of Cumbria

Wiscombe, C., Dobson, C., Carter, H., Maynard, L. (2014) The Aspiring Leaders Programme 2011-2014: Collaboration and Impact. University of Cumbria Research and Enterprise Conference 2014.

Dobson, C. (2013) 'Using live projects and experiential learning to enhance employability and enterprise skills in undergraduates' International Enterprise Educators Conference, Sheffield University, UK.  Successful Knowledge Transfer Project (KTP) with M&K Update (21 months), Keswick, Cumbria.

Development of e-learning portal for healthcare professionals http://elearning-mkupdate.co.uk/ Successful Short KTP (10 months) with H. Hogarth, Jewellers, Kendal, Cumbria. Development of e-commerce website www.hhogarth.co.uk

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