Alan Bruce

Alan Bruce is a Director of Universal Learning Systems – an international consultancy firm specializing in research, education, training and project management. ULS undertakes projects in the educational, development and management sectors. It operates in Ireland, the Czech Republic, United Kingdom and Finland.

Dr Bruce is a sociologist who studied in Los Angeles, Galway, Amsterdam and Hull. He has lectured in universities in France, England and Ireland and worked in policy research for the European Commission in Brussels.  In Ireland he was responsible for national initiatives in professional development in the disability sector.

He is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Counseling with the University of Wisconsin-Stout and an adviser on international relations to the University of Memphis. He coordinated the Diploma in Professional Studies (Managing Diversity) operated by University College Cork and Waterford Crystal. He teaches for the National University of Ireland Galway on learning policy, diversity and systematic training. He has been an adviser to the EU’s Directorate General for Education and Culture in the Adaptability Strand of the Equal Program (Paris 2005). He has written policy and conducted research for the Irish Training and Employment Authority (FAS) with particular reference to community employment, best practice and labor market outcomes for marginalized groups. He is academic adviser and course development specialist for equality and diversity training developed for An Garda Siochana and the Police Service of Northern Ireland under the EU Peace II initiative.

He has lectured and published widely on the social impact of disability, labor market policy, innovative education, distance learning, social inclusion, conflict transformation, strategic change and managing diversity. He was elected Fellow of the European Distance and E-Learning Network in Naples in 2007, and is a long standing member of the Irish Institute of Training and Development, the Institute of Guidance Counselors and the California Scholarship Federation.