Highflyers Publishing was set up in 1995 when we wrote One to One Skills for Tutors and decided to publish it ourselves. We can still remember our first order for 6 copies. Since then we have gone from strength to strength. Our original aim was to publish resources that we believed would make a difference. User friendly for careers advisers and teachers, fun for students - and it's what we are still about.
This year we are proud to be celebrating 10 years in business. 10 years in which we have produced over 20 products either through our own efforts or by working collaboratively with other experts in the field and provided a wide range of support, training and advice to customers from all kinds of careers and guidance backgrounds.
We are particularly proud of our special needs range of products which has continued to grow thanks to feedback and prompting from loyal customers. We are also pleased that our post 16 careers resources have had such a tremendous impact in that sector and that the training courses offered to support them have been so well attended and received. We are particularly pleased that our faith in our wacky computer games has been rewarded by organisations like Careers Scotland whose independent review of careers software led to the purchase and use of three of our programmes throughout Scotland.
Our products take a long time to develop. It is surprising how hard it is to make things easy for other people to use. It also takes time to dream up and trial activities and design materials that will appeal to students as well as move them on in their careers thinking. Feedback from customers, however, seems to suggest that we are getting it right and our products are very well thought of out in the world of careers work.
We are also delighted that as of this year, four of our On the Spot products
are being published in New Zealand and Australia. Perhaps now we can respond
to feedback from one little boy in a local primary school who told us he
was
disappointed in our On the Spot Multimedia programme because the jobs he
wanted weren't in it. Maybe our publishers 'down under' could arrange to
do a job study on a crocodile hunter and a shark slayer!
So it's been an interesting 10 years and, with the continued support of
our customers, we are looking forward to the next 10. We hope you find the
information you need on this website and, as always, we would welcome any
comments and feedback.
VAT reg. no. GB729551022
Company reg no. 3746347 Registered in England and Wales
Company registered address:
Highflyers Publishing Ltd
9 Riverway
Stafford
Staffordshire
ST16 3TH
Mike
Mike Shaw was born in Burnley. He grew up all over England and having done a degree in Fine Art made some innovative films with Arts Council funding. He then did lots of different jobs, including prawn packing, before moving into careers work. He is now married to Jackie and lives in Stafford. He has two children from a previous marriage. He is Company Director of Highflyers Publishing Ltd and responsible for the overall running of the business and product development and design.
Jackie
Jackie Hartley was born and grew up in Leeds. After doing a degree
in
English and History she was elected Vice President of her Students Union.
She then moved into careers work and now works part time as a UniversityCareers
Adviser. She is married to Mike and lives in Stafford. She has two daughters
from a previous marriage. She is also Company Secretary of Highflyers
Publishing Ltd and responsible for product development. She writes and
edits many of the products.
Christina
Christina Handford was born and grew up in Stoke on Trent. After achieving a 1st Class honours degree in Interactive Multimedia, Christina took up the post of Schools ICT Officer at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery before moving to Highflyers Publishing Ltd as a multimedia designer. She has won a number of prestigious national and international awards for Interactive Multimedia. She is responsible for multimedia product development and the company website.