Jean Pardoe, Chief Executive of Connexions Nottinghamshire, is to be awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to the careers service and young people.
Jean’s honour and recognition is as a result of more than 28 years dedicated to providing excellent careers advice for young people, starting as a Careers Adviser in Derbyshire and working up to her current role as Chief Executive of Connexions Nottinghamshire.
“I’m very proud that the importance of my profession has been recognised and I shall be collecting this award on behalf of the many people I have worked with at the Careers Service and those I work with now at Connexions Nottinghamshire.
“I am particularly proud of the tremendous success Connexions has had in Nottinghamshire. We are certainly setting a high standard here and have achieved some of the best results in the country in our work with young people. Over the last two years, we have seen youth un-employment drop by a third in the county. I feel that being influential in this success is my most important achievement over my years in the careers sector.”
A resident of Derbyshire, Jean started her career in Derby where she spent 15 years giving careers advice to thousands of young people before her own career took her to Nottinghamshire, her home county, having been brought up in Lambley.
She became Chief Executive of Connexions Nottinghamshire in December 2001 in preparation for the launch in April 2003. Prior to that, Jean was Chief Executive of GuideLine Career Services in Nottingham, a company formed in 1995 in response to the Government’s decision to privatise the provision of careers services for young people.
During her time spent developing Connexions, Jean has been instrumental in forging links between the Connexions service, its partnership agencies and local communities.
