After five decades working in learning, training and development Martyn Sloman retired in Autumn 2014. In the course of his professional life he held Visiting Professorships at three UK Universities and one South African University. He wrote seven books on management education and training and skills development: ‘A Handbook for Training Strategy’ (1994) made a considerable impact on the profession, was a UK best-seller, and was translated and published in India, China, and Poland. Martyn was the author of many academic papers and journal articles and lectured and presented at conferences in twenty countries across five continents. He was the keynote speaker at the European Commission Training Day and spoke by invitation to the Central Training Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. Martyn was called as an expert witness by Select Committees at both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
On retirement he resumed his active participation in the Labour Party He served as voluntary agent for the North Norfolk Labour Party, organising the campaign at two General Elections and many local authority elections. In 2024 he was presented with one of only two Merit Awards at the Labour Party’s annual Conference. This was in recognition of over 60 years of dedicated service.
Martyn’s 2015 book, 'Labour’s failure and my small part in it: a memoir for my grandchildren', is available as an e-book downloadable from the Kindle Store and in hard copy from Amazon. His blog, leftyoldman, covered local Labour politics from 2014 to 2020 and has since been included in the British Library’s UK web archive for the period.
Martyn and his wife Anne live in Norfolk and London and can be contacted at martynsloman@me.com or martyn.sloman@gmail.com