Associate Professor Deirdre Hughes OBE

Specialises in careers, employment, and skills policies at an international, national, and regional level. Deirdre is an Associate Professor at the University of Warwick’s Institute for Employment Research (IER) and is also the Founding Director of CareerChat UK Ltd – a national award-winning tech company focused on career exploration and the use of artificial intelligence (AI). Deirdre has advised Northern Ireland Ministers and other policymakers across the UK and further afield in her capacity as Managing Director of dmh associates – an education and career development research and consultancy company. She has co-authored three books published by Routledge: (i) Decent Work, Inclusion and Sustainability; (ii) Migration and Wellbeing: Towards a More Inclusive World; and (iii) Art of the Truth: Creative Methods in Guidance and Counselling. She is a Vice-President of the International Association for Vocational and Educational Guidance (IAEVG). In 2012, she was awarded an OBE for services to lifelong guidance.