"The programmes are designed to help individuals take their learning back into the workplace and benefit them in their personal lives, as well as in their professional roles"
Jon Palmer
Leadership and management training company In Professional Development has created a new specialist division offering bespoke courses to businesses and organisations across the UK and internationally after seeing a huge spike in demand.
INPD has seen revenues for its bespoke programmes double in the past year to £320,000.
Now the Wigan-based company has set up a dedicated bespoke training division, headed by director Jon Palmer.
Becky Highton has been promoted from event coordinator to the new role of bespoke training manager. Elena Adi has joined INPD as bespoke training coordinator, with responsibility for ensuring the successful delivery of the programmes.
INPD’s bespoke courses cover topics such as strategic leadership, finance, marketing, governance, managing teams remotely, succession planning and business development.
Clients range from public sector organisations and charities to blue-chip companies, family-owned businesses and small and medium-sized firms across the UK, Europe, the Middle East and the United States. Many clients are multi-national firms with staff based in several countries.
The bespoke programmes are currently being delivered online and range in length from one day to 12 days, spread over several weeks or months.
Jon, pictured, said: “In the past we provided bespoke training on an ad-hoc basis, but it has become a real growth area for the business and we have now decided to formalise our offering with the launch of a dedicated division.
“We have gone from delivering a handful of bespoke courses in 2018, our first year of trading, to over 90 in 2020.”
Jon said he pioneered INPD’s bespoke programmes after identifying that not every individual or company required off-the-shelf training or standard programmes.
“We discovered that a growing number of clients were seeking content that was tailored to their specific needs to have the maximum impact to suit their particular business goals,” he said.
“From the feedback we received, it was apparent that our bespoke programmes were proving very effective and that there was an opportunity to offer it on a wider basis.
“Drawing on the expertise of our academic partners, we have seen demand soar for our high-impact bespoke training designed to help companies and organisations improve the way they work, increase productivity and become more efficient.
“The programmes are designed to help individuals take their learning back into the workplace and benefit them in their personal lives, as well as in their professional roles.
“We are very ambitious for our bespoke training division and have plans to grow the offering wider in the UK and further across the globe.
Jon added: “Becky fully deserves her promotion to her new role. She is very well organised, has excellent administrative skills, and manages partnerships and relationships very capably.
“We are also delighted to welcome Elena to support clients on the customer journey and ensure the successful delivery of our bespoke training programmes. She is an experienced event coordinator and is a great addition to our team.”
INPD’s courses cater for chief executives, directors, managers, board members and other senior leaders. They are run in conjunction with academic and professional partners including the University of Chester, the University of York, the Chartered Management Institute and the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
