Kay is Principal at Cardiff and Vale College, an FE college created in 2011 following the merger of Barry College and Coleg Glan Hafren.
As a member of the executive team, she is responsible for curriculum delivery, student attainment and progression, quality and learner journey. Born in Aberdare, Kay studied hospitality management at Birmingham before going on to work in the industry. She is a qualified teacher whose first post was at Aberdare College, eventually becoming Assistant Principal. An advocate of lifelong learning, Kay completed an MSc in education management at the University of Glamorgan and joined Barry College as Vice Principal in 2003. During her time as Acting Principal of Barry College, she oversaw the merger between Barry College and Coleg Glan Hafren in 2011.
Kay is a Governor at both Cardiff West Community High School, Cardiff, and Bryn Hafren, Barry, and Chair of the Quality Skills Alliance work-based learning consortium. An experienced peer inspector with Estyn, she has more than 30 years teaching experience primarily with 16 to 19 year olds and adults. She worked on the Learning Pathways initiative at an early stage and helped to establish one of the first school/college consortiums, which led to her teaching 14 to 16 year olds.
Kay has developed several new initiatives in teaching and learning, which have led to increased participation, improved retention and outcomes for learners. Her work focuses on raising the achievement of disadvantaged groups and the achievement of more able and talented learners. The college has a clear vision to make learning real not realistic.