Welcome to Lesley’s world of Editing, Proofreading and Publishing!

Lesley runs her own editing company called Birch Writing Solutions, which has an impressive client list including McGraw Hill, Voicemap, Thinq International, DeakinPrime (a corporate arm of Deakin University) and ANZIIF. She has long been passionate about good written English and the difference it can make in business, in learning and in life.

Lesley hails from Central Scotland and has lived in Australia since 1994. She spent her first eleven working years in Australia in the corporate world, where she literally worked as the national learning and development manager for a large insurance division. There she created a national quality assurance framework, and learning and development team, which ensured the efficient production of effective and professional training materials.

Lesley went on to launch Birch Writing Solutions, where she initially edited manuscripts and movie-length film scripts. She also worked with training providers on learning and development materials, and both edited and created the text for marketing and promotional material, business websites and an array of other materials. Her theme was ‘Getting your point across’ and she helped everyone who came her way to do that concisely and effectively.

Lesley quickly realised that the editing industry is a large one and that it was difficult to provide services to so many, and to such a broad range of clients. As a result, she decided to combine two passions: writing and learning. The next thing Lesley found was that she was inspiring excellence in learning across the nation.

“I love inspiring people to learn,” says Lesley. “It really is one of my passions in life!”

Lesley continues to work full time as an editor, but focuses solely on editing, tutoring and assessing within the training and education industry. She chose the training industry because she believes that training materials must be conducive to the learning experience of the learner and she knew that she could have an impact on the level of excellence being achieved by training providers.

That’s why she values her role with the ACQ: because it allows her to support the College aims and vision—as well as the course participants—all the time still concentrating, in one way or another, on helping the learner to learn.

Lesley holds qualifications in editing and proofreading, administration, design and psychology, and she holds a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment. Lesley is also a member of the NSW Society of Editors.

This is a fabulous opportunity for students to have such an experienced and dedicated editor and learning professional as their tutor. We know your experience with Lesley will be one that you benefit from for many years to come!

We change people's lives ...