Fred Tickle is a Chartered Engineer with Membership of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Institution of Production Engineers and the Chartered Quality Institute. He has a Degree in Behavioural Sciences. After an engineering apprenticeship with Rubery Owen Ltd became a Design Engineer for the Atomic Energy Authority designing plant for nuclear fuel production and radioactive waste disposal. He is a Lead Assessor.

After teacher training he became a college lecturer developing courses in Statistical Process Control and Quality Assurance. He has carried out a large number of training needs analyses and in-company training programmes for companies including: Ronsons, Ferranti, Solartron, Vokes, Martonair, Atomic Energy Harwell, REME, Royal Navy, British Aerospace, Hotpoint and many smaller companies.

The type of training ranges from supervisory and management attitude orientation seminars to complete programmes of personnel training at all levels. The specialisms encompass such subjects as Quality Auditing, Quality Circles, Quality of Design, Statistical Process Control, Sampling Inspection, BS5750/ISO 9000 & AQAPS, and Computer Aided Quality.

In some instances training programmes have spanned a number of years and have included the compilation of distance learning and training guides.

Consultancy in Quality Assurance has included the installation of Quality Assurance Systems for the Egyptian Army, Hotpoint and a number of small companies. A typical service provided to companies has been to carry out a quality audit against BS5750 or AQAPS followed by the design and implementation of an appropriate programme to introduce the necessary adaptations required to gain approval to these standards. This has included the design of systems, compilation of procedures, Quality Manuals and Quality Plans, or tutoring company personnel to compile their own.

Fred Tickle was until recently Joint Head of the Quality Unit at Guildford College of Technology which has gained an international reputation for training and consultancy in the field of Quality Assurance. He is currently Associate Lecturer in TQM at Surrey University. He is also on the BSI committee for ISO 9000, QMS 2.

Fred is also author of a number of books on Quality Assurance