Our People

Delivering apprenticeships that make a positive impact

Mark Norse

MBA, CMgr FCMI – CEO & Founder

With over 20 years of experience as a senior leader in the training industry, Mark has built a deep understanding of what it takes to run a successful, high-performing training organisation. His focus has always been on delivering consistently excellent results—and doing it the right way.

Mark believes the heart of NowSkills’ success lies in its people. By recruiting, retaining, and developing a talented team who genuinely care—about the organisation, about each other, and about the learners they support—NowSkills has created a culture of fresh thinking and positivity. It’s this foundation that makes the organisation sustainable, ethical, and impactful for both employers and apprentices.

For Mark, teamwork is everything. He says, “Whether it’s working closely with employers, offering impartial careers advice, or delivering engaging learning, our NowSkills family culture inspires us to care deeply and deliver a high-quality, sequenced programme that helps learners progress and thrive.”

Outside of work, Mark’s a tech enthusiast with a soft spot for his pet animals. When he’s not keeping fit, playing sports, or catching up on current affairs, you’ll probably find him tackling a DIY project or two.

Daniel Wells

MSc, FloL, Assoc CIPD – Managing Director

Working in the apprenticeships sector for over 10 years – starting as an apprentice and working in roles of apprentice recruitment, employer engagement, assessor, tutor, and training manager – Daniel has developed the skills and knowledge in delivering successful apprenticeship training.

Daniel is committed to ensuring an excellent quality of apprenticeship provision, understanding the challenges faced by the sector, and that developing quality is a continuous process – learning every day, just like our apprentices. At the heart of all this, an excellent, motivated team, working together, is what gets the job done.

Daniel believes strongly in the benefits of professional development, and thanks to work-based learning, he was able to complete an MSc Human Resource Management & Development degree in 2017, despite never going to University previously – he himself is a product of the sector.

When not studying something new, Daniel has a keen interest in travel, some of his favourite places being The Lake District, Switzerland, and Australia.

Katja Norse

BSc (Hons), PgCert, AVS – Founder & Director

As the founder of NowSkills, it was Katja’s vision to build an ethical organisation that would enable young people to realise their dreams of a meaningful and rewarding IT career with committed local employers.

Katja has been a leading senior scientist for almost 20 years with the NHS and manages one of the UK’s biggest UKAS accredited vascular units where she is the CQC registered manager. She was also accepted as an NHS leadership fellow in 2013.

These days, Katja takes more of a supporting and advisory role at NowSkills but she is keen to ensure her vision to support apprentices and employers with well-planned, sequenced, training programmes delivered by an exceptional training team continues to be realised.

In her spare time, Katja enjoys 1990s euro-pop music, spinning classes, and taking good care of her pet chihuahuas.

John Sheehan

MBA, FFA, FIPA – Finance Director

John Sheehan is an MBA and Financial accountant. John has run several businesses and set up his first Business Advisory Centre over 25 years ago building up a wealth of business and financial/accounting knowledge across many businesses in this time, specialising in Corporate Finance.

John has worked with Mark Norse for many years and has built an in-depth understanding of commercial and apprenticeship training, especially apprenticeships having been an Engineering Apprentice himself back in the day!

John has spent half a lifetime training others and gaining his own qualifications and is a great believer in apprenticeships, where young people can gain direction and transferrable skills for life in a real environment, where decisions actually matter. John says that the great joy of training is in learning in return.

John is married to Jan, who has a successful career of her own in the NHS, and together they have two Daughters, with very successful careers of their own in the NHS and Law.

When John isn’t working his passion is music and he has sung and played guitar and bass in several groups. He often plays charity gigs for Cancer Research and you may have seen him “around town” with his fellow musicians.