Education and Training Awards 2021

Best Independent Further Education Provider - Staffordshire Headquartered in Trentham, Acacia Training has seen a surge in business over the last 12 months. Victoria Sylvester tells us more about how the firm has successfully weathered the storm of Covid-19 and has grand plans for future development. Staffordshire-based Acacia Training was founded on the principle that it wanted to deliver training differently. Over 20 years later, it is continuously looking at new and innovative ways of meeting the needs of its learners and employers. With a mission to improve peoples’ lives through delivery of quality education and empower them to be able to make choices, Acacia Training’s vision is to make education accessible to everyone, ensure opportunities for career progression and for its learners to make a positive contribution to modern society. Acacia Training works alongside many different organisations to support this mission, to promote improved working environments within its own organisation as well as the wider workforce, and to support health, wellbeing, equality and inclusion. Recently, Acacia Training has seen employer demand for apprentices rocket by almost 75% during the first quarter of 2021, compared with the same period last year. During the first quarter of this year, the Trentham-based team enrolled 450 new trainees across a range of courses compared to 258 in the same period in 2020. The company has now pledged to secure at least 1800 apprentices by the end of the year; up to 500 kickstart placements for 18-24 year olds; and enrol over 540 traineeship learners. The company recently unveiled the completion of a £250,000 refurbishment to its headquarters in Trentham Business Quarter, as it prepares to welcome its 131-strong team of employees back to the office following the recent lockdowns. Apr21539 Chief Executive Officer, Victoria Sylvester, comments: “Given what the entire country has experienced in the past year, it is encouraging to see learners embark on new and exciting paths and reassuring to witness businesses recognise the value in supporting new and returning employees to gain greater skills. “Here at Acacia, we are driven by our vision to make education accessible to everyone, ensure opportunities for career progression and to make a positive contribution to modern society. Education and training are fundamental to this and it is a very positive step to see the government increasing financial resources to help employers recruit and train staff through the combination of traineeships, the Kickstart scheme which is proving popular, and greater funding for Apprenticeships. “Our clients range from individual learners who want to find employment or progress in their career to large employers, like the NHS, MoD and local authorities. Many are somewhere in between – indeed, 83% of our learners are employed by small or medium enterprises.” As Vice Chair of the Staffordshire Partnership for Employment and Skills, Victoria works closely with local organisations in Staffordshire including Jobcentre Plus and Stoke on Trent and Staffordshire Local Enterprise Partnership, to improve employment opportunities and help stimulate economic growth amongst the region’s employers. Victoria concludes: “Whilst it’s been a challenging twelve months for us all, I am so proud of my team for adapting rapidly to what our learners and employer clients needed from us – not just in the health and social care profession which has been exceptionally busy – but also across our other sectors such as business, hair and beauty, dental nursing and leadership and management. “I’m really looking forward to welcoming the whole team back and excited that we have made such exciting changes to a more flexible, collaborative and inspiring working environment through our significant refurbishment project.” As a preferred provider with Skills for Care, the sector skills council for adult social care, Acacia Training also holds a status as a disability confident leader, enabling it to support its employees and promote inclusive and accessible recruitment. Having trained more than 150 mental health first aiders in conjunction in with Mental Health England, Acacia Training has made a commitment to the Armed Forces Covenant to support those who have served in the armed forces. The firm also holds a silver accreditation with Healthworks, Stoke on Trent for workplace health and wellbeing. Contact: John Roberts Company: Acacia Training Web Address: www.acaciatraining.co.uk