Today I work in adult learning and applied AI at Boom Training / Turing College, while building Conversation Coach, an AI practice platform for difficult workplace conversations, and Coglet, practical training designed around what people need to recognise, judge and do in real educational settings.
LEARNING · EDUCATION · BUILDING
Owned venture
Practice under pressure before it matters.
Managers are expected to handle feedback, conflict, underperformance, repair and difficult change with remarkably little opportunity to practise. Conversation Coach gives people somewhere private to prepare, rehearse the back-and-forth, get feedback and try again before the conversation is real.
Founding Partner
Learning that builds confident practice.
Coglet is building compliance training and CPD for people who work with and care for children. My founding work focuses on the learning itself: turning regulation, evidence and specialist input into training that helps practitioners recognise what matters, make sound judgements and act well in real settings.
Current role
Head of Apprenticeship Units.
My current work is in adult learning and applied AI, with a particular interest in how people develop genuine capability with new and fast-moving technology.
94%
In East Anglia, trainee retention was roughly 94%, the highest nationally for three consecutive years while I led programme delivery.
1,300+
As Head of Delivery, I led the redesign of Teach First’s Summer Institute and the work behind its 2026 National Gathering in Newcastle.
8 weeks
I led a cross-functional redesign across legal, compliance, recruitment and programme teams to address sytemic risk in a key regulatory process. Executive leaders reported a material reduction in organisational risk within eight weeks.
Claire has a rare ability to combine calm, steady leadership with genuine innovation. She creates clarity where others see complexity and has an incredible talent for turning ambitious ideas into reality.
HEAD OF DELIVERY
Teach First
I love conversations about learning, leadership and the parts of building that get messy in real life.
Why difficult-conversation training so often fails. We teach people what to say, then give them nowhere to practise the moment another human pushes back, goes quiet or gets upset.
What makes learning survive contact with reality. Practice, feedback, judgement, and why course completion tells us very little about what somebody can actually do.
What changes when you stop delivering other people’s ideas and start building your own. Nearly twenty years inside education and large organisations has given me plenty to both draw on and unlearn as I build products and businesses myself.
For podcasts, panels, speaking or simply to say hello, please get in touch. I'd love to hear from you.
hello@clairegothard.com