Laura Kirsop is a former teacher and teacher educator who is now a Senior Product Manager at FutureLearn. Her main passion lies in increasing opportunities for young people in STEM.
For seven years she worked as a primary school teacher, coordinated ICT and mentored trainee teachers. She led a number of initiatives to improve digital skills, including getting students blogging and coding.
This work led to her getting involved in Code Club, a nationwide network of volunteer-led after school coding clubs. In her role as Head of Code Club UK she oversaw curriculum design, evaluation, partnerships and community management. She worked closely with funders such as Google, Nesta and Samsung on a number of high-profile projects.
She then moved on to become a Senior Product Manager at FutureLearn, a social learning network that has over 5 million users worldwide. Here she leads the Learner Experience team – an interdisciplinary team focussed on increasing learner participation and improving pedagogical tools.
In her spare time she trains teachers to deliver the new Computing curriculum and produces and co-hosts an edtech podcast called Book Smart. She also volunteers for charities that improve the digital skills of young people.