John May (youth worker)
British scout leader & youth sector senior leader
John Clive Cecil May (born 1964) is a British youth worker. He was born in the United Kingdom, and was educated at Beaudesert Park School and Wycliffe College, in Gloucestershire. He pursued higher education at Bristol University, where he achieved a Joint Honours degree in Drama and English, and then at Westminster College, Oxford, where he was awarded a postgraduate certificate in education.
Professional career
Teaching
From 1986 to 1998, May taught in Staffordshire, West Sussex and Buckinghamshire, eventually becoming Headteacher of Manor Farm School in High Wycombe. In the early part of his career, May was achieved a master's degree in education from the Open University. During this time, he worked on a number of business education partnerships, culminating in his school being awarded the National Schools Curriculum Award in recognition of community links.
Business in the Community
May left teaching in 1998 to become the Director of Education and Community Campaigns at Business in the Community, where he ran Partners in Leadership, a mentoring programme for headteachers in partnership with the National College of School Leadership; Time to Read, a national scheme to encourage employee volunteers to support literacy in primary schools; and commissioned the work to create the educational charity Teach First, becoming one of its founding directors and trustees.
Career Ready / Career Academies UK
In 2002, May took on the role of founding CEO of the charity Career Academies UK, now known as Career Ready. Career Ready aims to bridge the gap between education and the workplace by providing young people with the skills, confidence, and networks needed to succeed in their careers. The charity partners with schools and colleges to offer a structured program of mentoring, masterclasses, workplace visits, and internships.
“John May (youth worker)” enters the record as british scout leader & youth sector senior leader. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what John, youth and worker can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6224251. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1964, 1986, 1998 and 2002.
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