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Brenda In The Boardroom

CEO Brenda McLeish OBE DL reflects on the growth of Learning Curve Group as it enters its 20th year of trade.

In 2011, Brenda McLeish – back then without the OBE and DL – took the reins as CEO of Learning Curve Group (LCG) and has since driven the company to amazing growth, positioning it as one of the largest and most diverse training and education providers in the country.

But her appointment as CEO wasn’t the first time Brenda had stepped foot inside the doors of LCG as she was originally headhunted for the position of Business Development Director in 2008, for what was then a well-established skills provider for employers and further education providers, comprising of a mere 40 members of staff.

It was clear to Brenda that she had a ‘work family’ of extremely passionate people. ‘Chop me in half and I’d bleed purple’, they’d say. And it was as more and more said the same that the employees of LCG coined themselves ‘Purple People’. A moniker now known, and often envied, sector-wide for what it represents – that same close-knit, community culture of people who work hard and do the right thing for their learners, customers and fellow Purple People – the exact same ethos that was instilled in the much smaller business all those years ago. Brenda has since grown the headcount of Purple People to almost 1000!

Witnessing and driving 13 years of transformation, Brenda reflects on the growth of LCG since its establishment.

“Of course, LCG was originally founded in 2004 by Tony Outhart and Judith Moran, and though the business may have evolved immensely, our core mission and vision is still exactly as it was back then – to give people skills that they can use to transform their lives.

Two years after LCG were awarded their first ESFA contract in 2006, I joined as Business Development Director and I instantly saw the huge potential of the company and, more so, the people.

The founders taught me what it meant to be truly entrepreneurial which was a massive contrast to the experience I’d gained so far in the public sector.

We were hit with an Ofsted inspection a year later, and it’s fair to say we’ve become well acquainted with them ever since – we’ve had seven of our subsidiary training companies inspected in the past 24 months alone! As expected, they’ve been nothing but positive – and this has been a factor pivotal to our growth.

2011 saw my appointment as CEO, and the opening of our first Skills Academy. It’s mind-blowing to think that we now have over 60 academies across England and Wales operating daily to help young people and adults acquire the skills to fulfil their dreams.

The famous rebrand from orange to purple happened in 2012 and so the Purple revolution began. I don’t know what it is about the colour Purple but it has instilled the most unique culture in our people, and I absolutely love it.

In 2013, we made our first acquisition. The company was called Learning at Work, and crucial to the acquisition (and all those that came after it) was the harmony in our shared passion for upskilling individuals across the country and supporting them to maximise their potential.

In 2013, we had an internal buy-out and a full management buy-out two years later. This gave me the opportunity to be a shareholder in the business and, honestly, if it hadn’t been for the influence of LCG’s founders and their generosity in giving me this opportunity, I would probably have stayed in the public sector rather than take the risk that entrepreneurs do.

We also had our second Ofsted inspection, where we were, again, graded Good. The thirst to do more, support more individuals across the UK, and grow our employee count prompted our second acquisition in 2015 –  a recruitment and learner find agency called WorkWise Personnel, based just 30 minutes or so from our Head Office, which was then in Bishop Auckland. It was from this acquisition that one of the largest areas of the business became even bigger and even more self-sufficient. We no longer needed to rely on external suppliers to help us find the individuals who wanted to study our programmes.

In 2016, we were named Skills Provider of the Year and Vocational Provider of the Year by Education Investor – our first prestigious accolades. It’s fair to say we’ve since gone on to receive many more, but listing them all here for you wouldn’t be very exciting so we’ll move on!

Having firmly established our belief in finding, developing and retaining talent at LCG (which has truly been fundamental to our success), we were awarded the Investors In People Gold Award in 2017. This really ignited our passion to expand our workforce and become one of the UK’s top employers.

IIP Gold At Learning Curve Group

Next in our growth came the acquisition of Integrity IT, Profound and NCT in 2018. This massively increased our head count and ability to offer apprenticeship training within specialist fields which was a big goal for our growth plans.

Then came our next big move in 2018. A literal move in fact, as we relocated to Durhamgate to our current – and maybe I’m biased, but stunning – office space. Today, our Head Office is the base for over 300 of our Purple People.

Learning Curve Group Building

In this same year, we introduced the Purple People Academy. I strongly believe in practising what you preach and what better way to do that as a training provider than to develop your own talent pipelines in house? After being named one of the best companies to work for in the UK, we recognised our responsibility to give opportunities to young people in the region, and so we onboarded our first cohort of apprentices. Five years and five cohorts later, the Purple People Academy stands as strong as ever, continuing to empower our staff and apprentices to develop their talent, with an annual graduation celebration too!

Purple People Academy

Our plan to become one of the leading UK employers certainly materialised in 2019 when we were named in the Sunday Times Top 100 Companies to Work For – a real milestone in our strategic people plans – not to mention, a personal milestone for myself.

It was time to make a big move in our skills-training provision, and so, in 2019, we acquired Antrec Training Solutions and, in 2020, the London Hairdressing Apprenticeship Academy (LHAA), before welcoming our new investment partners. The acquisition of LHAA brought with it 80 fantastic members of staff and eight new academies in London, allowing us to reach new geographies, and thus, more learners. This truly brought a new level of excellence to our Hair and Beauty provision.

Albeit an ambitious growth move, the acquisition of military training provider, MPCT, in 2021 allowed us to expand the military preparation offer we already had, hugely boosting our capacity to transform lives through learning. Integrating staff from both companies into our Purple family has been a pleasure, adding a crucial dynamism to our culture. A shared value and purpose are crucial to any acquisition, and I believe both our companies had just that.

MPCT

During the midst of all this was, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic – I mean, who could forget? Like many, if not all, other businesses, the pandemic completely changed the way we operated. It was certainly one of the most challenging periods I’ve ever experienced during my 20+ years in the education sector, and of course, the impact on face-to-face delivery and apprenticeships was huge. However, with change brings opportunity – especially if you know how to navigate it. And believe me, it really did bring opportunity for us.

We had to make a lot of changes and fast.

One of the biggest challenges of all was considering how we would continue to support our learners. Not only did we have to think about how our different delivery models could be translated into an online world, but we also had to consider digital poverty, individual learning styles and levels and how we could continue to support learners the way we did in the traditional face-to-face environment, remotely.

We quickly utilised online platforms to make all of our short courses available online.

There is one word for what happened next: wow. Within the first month of moving online, we had over 30,000 enquiries. We saw a huge growth in individuals wanting to complete online qualifications – especially our suite of mental health courses, which was somewhat bittersweet. It’s no secret that the mental health of the nation was seriously impacted during the pandemic, but simultaneously, to be in the position to educate thousands of people to actually understand mental health, how to deal with it, and how to do something about mental ill health, if they recognised it in themselves or loved ones, was a really fantastic position for us to be in. Not to mention that it was concrete evidence that we were transforming lives through learning every day which was a driving force behind the amazing levels of staff morale that we saw during such a challenging time. I said before in an interview that slowly changing the world is what makes our Purple People buzz, and it still stands so true. Changing lives, one learner at a time is the driving force behind our business.

We supported a significant volume of individuals to access learning, despite not having funding for all of them.

This was a big decision, but we would never stray from what we believe in, and ‘keeping learners at the centre of everything we do’ is one of our core values.

So, somehow (that ‘somehow’ being the absolute hard work, dedication and passion of our Purple People), we came out of the pandemic stronger, having learned a great deal – especially regarding technology’s power in removing barriers to learning. And in 2021, we had another Good-graded Ofsted inspection as we continued to support learners, old and young, and from all walks of life, up and down the country, to get on (or back on) the career ladder in the bizarreness that was the post-pandemic world. This inspection saw us graded Outstanding in our adult learning programmes, emphasising the real-world impact that our education was having on lives across the UK. A personal lesson learned here was to always take bold moves and embrace change. If we hadn’t done this, we wouldn’t have been able to support the extraordinary amount of learners that we did.

In 2022, we welcomed White Rose Beauty Colleges into our Purple family. White Rose was a Yorkshire-based, beauty therapy training provider, and one of the biggest in the UK, so this was a move that complemented our existing academy provision.

White Rose Beauty Acquired

This deal saw the addition of thousands of learners each year in nine new locations and 170 employees, confirming LCG’s position as one of the largest providers of high-quality hair, beauty and barbering training in the country.

After this, we had six Ofsted inspections over the course of 2022 – all with Good or Outstanding results! This was an absolute whirlwind of a year, and it certainly kept us on our toes, but we came out of each inspection with a fantastic result and some really constructive feedback that we have implemented into our strategies going forward.

We also appointed our brilliant Chief Operating Officer, Emma Barrett-Peel, who has been an incredible addition to our executive board and has really driven the quality of our operations forward.

Then, at midnight, 1st January 2022, I was named on Her Majesty’s New Year’s Honours List where I was awarded an OBE for my services to further education. I’ll tell you first-hand this was an absolutely incredible surprise and honour. And although I may be the person named on the list and holding the award in the pictures, this was truly one for the Purple People. Their dedication, drive, loyalty, and above all, hard work are really what made this happen. Nevertheless, it was, of course, the highlight of my career so far and a truly unforgettable experience.

Brenda Receiving OBE

This was also the year that we grew our internal IT capabilities and expanded our edTech suite of products and software to another level.

Now, as we say hello to 2024 and as LCG approaches its 20th birthday, I can admit that it is refreshing to be able to say goodbye to 2023. It certainly came with its challenges for many businesses with the cost of living crisis and squeezed budgets. Luckily, these past 20 years have set us in good stead for any challenges that are thrown our way.

Despite the challenges, 2023 wasn’t without some really exceptional achievements for us. Sometimes, it’s helpful to take a break from looking forward so you can reflect and see how far you have come.

In 2023, we held our biggest and best staff conference, where we saw our entire workforce of almost 1,000 Purple People meet at the ICC in Birmingham for two days of development, bonding and fun. This is always my favourite event of the year, allowing me to see old faces and meet new ones. As the business grows, one of the hardest changes for me is no longer being able to know every employee on a more personal level like I used to.

It’s strange to think I used to stand on a little platform in a small hotel local to our Head Office to deliver our staff conferences. To go from that to standing on a stage in Birmingham welcoming hundreds of our staff to our annual conference is mind-blowing, but something I’m very proud of.

We also held our ninth charity ball in November which incredibly raised over £10,000 for the Learning Curve Group Charity Foundation. We established our Charity Foundation in 2019 with a vision rooted in three core pillars: increasing skills, decreasing unemployment, and alleviating poverty.  My commitment to helping people grasp opportunities probably stems from my roots in the North East – a region with a high rate of economically inactive adults. We strongly believe in giving people the chance to upskill, from all walks of life.

Amazingly, since the inception of the foundation, we have raised over £80,000 which has gone to some really fantastic causes. We have supported many individuals and organisations across the country with some incredible stories thanks to the incredible donations. Further expanding the geographical spread of the individuals and organisations that we support through the foundation is definitely on the agenda for 2024.

Learning Curve Group Staff

To complement our suite of edTech solutions and enhance growth in our offering, we launched CareersPro, an AI-powered careers planning platform. The platform has been developed to support our learners’ next steps, and help other educational institutions meet the Careers Advice, Information and Guidance Benchmarks required in Ofsted inspections now, which has been a persistent downfall for many years. It uses comparative judgement to empower the learner to choose a career that aligns with their skills and interests. With the platform gaining traction in the sector, I’m excited to see how impactful it is in enhancing CEIAG for schools, colleges and providers like us in the coming year.

Educate Awards Winners

Upskilling the nation and making education and training accessible to all is at the heart of what we do and to have a whole workforce behind you who are passionate to do the same is really unique, and for that, I am extremely grateful. 2024 looks to be a great year for Learning Curve Group and our Purple family.

So, here’s to the next 20 years – I look forward to seeing what it brings!”

 

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