Ryan graduated from Leeds Metropolitan university with a degree in Design & Technology and English with QTS, specialising in middle-years in 2002, after which time went straight into teaching D&T in Sherburn-in-Elmet, Leeds. Following several years as a teacher and head of department in a variety of schools in the U.K. he moved overseas where he was head of faculty at schools in the Middle East and Malaysia. During this time he gained an M.A. from the University of Hertfordshire. He has taught students from age 7 to 18, with his students winning a variety of awards for the highest marks in the country, continent and world. He has had successful teams enter the F1 in Schools’ world finals for three years and was also F1 in Schools' in-country coordinator.

He has been invited to, and presented at various educational conferences in the U.K., Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Madrid, including Autodesk university and BETT. His work combining education and industry awarded him the accolade of top 100 educational initiatives in the world by HundrED. He is a long-serving Ofqual consultant for D&T and engineering, D&T author/contributor of several revision books and Autodesk content writer. He joined the D&T Association in 2019 as a curriculum trainer and is now Director of Education, overseeing and advising on educational aspects at the Association.