Ambition Institute appoints Yalinie Vigneswaran as Executive Director of Programme Delivery

Following our recent announcement that Natalie Dixon has been appointed as Executive Director for the Early Career Framework and National Professional Qualifications, we are delighted to announce Yalinie’s appointment to our senior team.

Yalinie will head up teams supporting professional development across our own specialist programmes, including Instructional Coaching and Transforming Teaching, as well as our Initial Teacher Training programme which starts in September 2024. 

Yalinie joins Ambition from Education Development Trust (EDT), where she is Senior Programme Director overseeing UK education services including the Early Career Framework, National Professional Qualifications and the National Tutoring Programme.

Prior to this, Yalinie was Head of Academic Mentoring at Teach First, where she mobilised the successful tutoring programme during the Covid-19 pandemic, sourcing and training more than 1,000 mentors and reaching over 100,000 pupils.

Yalinie began her career in education as a science and mathematics teacher and later Assistant Headteacher in Melbourne, Australia. She has a degree in Pharmacology, a Postgraduate Diploma in Secondary Education and Teaching and holds a Master’s of Teaching.

Yalinie and Natalie will join Hilary Spencer (Chief Executive), Marie Hamer (Executive Director of Strategy and Impact), Stephen Jones (Executive Director of Partnerships) and Tom Glover (Chief Financial Officer) in Ambition’s senior leadership team at an exciting time for the charity. During the last academic year, Ambition supported more than 46,200 teachers and school leaders, and worked with over 8,700 schools, and is currently working with over a third of state schools in the country.

Yalinie Vigneswaran said: “I am delighted to be joining Ambition Institute, an organisation I have long admired. Its commitment to delivering the highest professional standards for educators and ensuring every child gets the best education they can are values I share. I am very much looking forward to collaborating with colleagues and partners to help people fall in love with teaching and stay in love with the profession for the long term.”

Hilary Spencer, Chief Executive of Ambition Institute, said: “We are excited to welcome Yalinie to the executive team at Ambition. Our goal is to help teachers and leaders to support every child to thrive, no matter what their background. Yalinie brings invaluable experience of mobilising and leading national programmes with the same goal, which will help us prepare for our first Initial Teacher Training cohort in 2024 and other new ways for us to support our partners and the wider sector.”