Edwin James Group Expands Academy Programme

Edwin James Group has strengthened its commitment to learning and development with the launch of a further purpose-built Academy hub in the midlands. The hub will be the home of training in England and follows the successful launch of a centre in Scotland in 2021.

In-person and remote learning

The new hub in Derbyshire features a classroom, a collaboration space, several e-learning rooms and an electrical training and assessment facility. It can deliver in-person and remote learning for the company’s employees.

In addition to the hub, the group is also launching 23 new in-person training courses to support colleagues in their career development and day-to-day roles.  This takes the total number of courses available to over 170.

Training courses covering topics including people management, leadership development, safety, and functional skills will be delivered by internal and external training experts. The group has also enhanced its talent development programme designed to support the next generation of leaders, with courses from the Chartered Management Institute and the Institute of Leadership & Management.

Innovation and creativity vital for success

Commenting on the investment, Christopher Kehoe, chief executive, said: “We are always seeking to innovate and take a creative approach to how we deliver the learning and development that is vital to our future growth and success. By offering both online and in person training we can make our training accessible to everyone.

“During the pandemic, we moved quickly to introduce virtual training to ensure our colleagues could continue with vital career development and to ensure we didn’t lose crucial training hours. Despite the challenges, it’s been a time of innovation and progress where we’ve had to re-think how to deliver not only role focussed training but also much needed support around health and wellbeing.

New hub represents milestone for development

“Moving forwards, we’re now able to support and encourage more face-to-face learning that can also help to develop some of the softer and more interpersonal skills that can be difficult to teach remotely. Launching the new Academy hub in England is a milestone for the group, making it much easier for us to deliver high quality, expert training to our staff wherever they’re located.”

Developing talent from within is important in a sector that is suffering the effects of a skills gap. The new Academy programme was launched in 2021 to support STEM careers at all levels and has already delivered over 51,000 hours of training in its first year.