The Sureserve Academy is the central hub for all learning and development activity across the Group.

We are creating visibility and promoting consistency in all training and upskilling undertaken within each of our businesses, whether that’s apprenticeships, new recruits, employee development opportunities, mandatory training or our online learning management system.

Through an ongoing commitment to training, development and investment we make it clear to our people that in the long term we encourage them to grow and develop within their profession, developing their career in exactly the way they feel they want to. We believe the Academy has the potential to become the cornerstone of our resourcing and reputation within the industry. The Academy’s aim is to prepare the Group to meet both today’s training demands and tomorrow’s operational challenges. We are committed to developing and identifying talent within our business, to generate exciting career opportunities and a consistent quality talent pipeline to meet the market’s growing demands and ensure the long term sustainability of our business.

In May 2019 we hosted our first Sureserve Academy event bringing together over 120 learners from across the UK to share their knowledge and experience with fellow trainees, managers and members of the Board. The day provided an opportunity to meet other colleagues from different parts of the Group and it highlighted the quality of people undertaking apprenticeships, upskilling and management training across the businesses. Attendees were invited to share a day of team building and discussions regarding the Academy’s aims, strategies and developments. It was an opportunity for many of our people to meet for the first time and share their experiences of training within the Group, offering a valuable insight into the variety of paths to further development open to them.

During 2020 the Academy expanded their training provision to incorporate the Group’s joint venture partners, Warmworks and Arbed.

Apprenticeships

The Sureserve Group has a long and proud history of recruiting and supporting apprentices into the business. Many of our people now in senior management began their careers as apprentices and the opportunity to learn whilst working alongside experienced professionals ensures that colleagues have pertinent up to date industry experience as soon as they pass the necessary qualifications.

Many of our core business activities would not be possible without apprentices and as such we are always looking at ways to improve our recruitment processes and encourage more individuals to join the Group to continue their professional development and establish their careers with us. Many apprentices just beginning their course of learning this year are the decision makers and team leaders of the future of the Group.

Management Excellence Programme

2019 saw the launch of the Group Management Excellence Programme, a modular training course created to support our Future Leaders initiative, identifying and encouraging talent and potential in a variety of roles across the business. A combination of online and classroom-based training was specifically created to deliver focused learning to participants in areas such as legal risk, fraud prevention, corporate strategy and influencing and communication. The programme will continue to expand in scope and engagement and provide our people with a further route to advancement in their careers, as well as providing the Group with a valuable talent pool in the development of our management teams.