My mother, Margaret Levy, who has died aged 97, was a gifted scientist, a dedicated teacher and the driving force behind internationally recognised core skills and work-based learning projects. She recognised that, in the 1950s and 60s, education and training for over 16s short-changed many young school-leavers; her life’s work was to do something about it.

Born in Chigwell, Essex, to Winifred (nee Asser), and Albert Snazell, a corn and seed merchant, Margaret spent her early life in Southend-on-Sea. During the second world war she was evacuated to Claygate, Surrey, and studied at the Tiffin girls’ school in Kingston.

On returning to Southend, she attended Westcliff high school for girls, and was head girl. She met her future husband, Arthur Levy, when she was 16. He became a civil servant, working at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries & Food. They married in 1948 when Margaret was 20. They moved to Bayswater, London, that year and had many international tenants who became close friends.

Margaret graduated from King’s College London in 1952 with a science degree and received a master’s in crystallography from Birkbeck, University of London, in 1955. She gave birth to my older sister, Margi, in 1951 while still at university, which was very much frowned upon, due to strict administrative regulations.

She went on to teach A-level chemistry, physics and mathematics at Southwark College, south London, from 1958 until 1978. Many young women would tell her that “girls can’t do science”. It was Margaret who showed them that they could; they did, and secured good, better-paid jobs too.

When Arthur died in 1976, Margaret decided to leave teaching and redirected her energy into educational research and vocational training policy, and initiated the first “return to study science” course, aimed at mature women.

In 1981 she was headhunted by the Manpower Services Commission, and the following year became director of the Core Skills Project, which was supported by the European Social Fund. The project formed part of the wider New Training Initiative, which sought to create a more flexible and adaptable workforce during a period of profound economic and industrial change.

In the UK, the projects she directed resulted in at least three models that have had a profound impact, both nationally and internationally. Margaret’s aim was to bridge the gap between policy direction and implementation. She had a fiercely independent spirit, a quick wit and a sense of fairness. These qualities made her memorable; her kindness made her loved.

In 2002 she moved from Bayswater to Kingston, where she had gone to school all those years previously, and which is close to my home. There she got involved in a local residents’ group, Friends of Latchmere Recreation Ground, championing a right of way near her house and taking on Kingston council, with other neighbours, to stop the building of a sports pavilion.

Margi died in 2013. Margaret is survived by me, four grandchildren, a great-grandchild, and her longtime companion, Jim Ray.