We were approached by this police authority to provide resources for staff to develop financial management skills. This authority has decided to start the process of skills development by using our books as an effective way of introducing topics such as managing budgets and costing and pricing. The important factor being that our books and our training approach is practical and targeted at the public sector, hence being more relevant to their staff. This organisation has purchased several hundred of our titles to engage with all staff in a cost effective manner, and to start the process of developing skills and changing attitudes to managing finance.

Our training and consultancy services are delivered in a unique way which enables non-commercial organisations and their staff, engage with topics such as finance management. We are able to communicate private sector principles to the public and non-profit sectors in a way that makes sense to their particular sector. Arts Organisations often find focussing on financial management difficult as it takes energy away from creativity. However, all organisations have to be run in a way that is both viable and sustainable. We were able to help our client with this in a number of ways which included training the board members, working with the finance officer, and offering advice and input to the financial governance of the organisation. This included working on the way in which financial information is presented to assist with monitoring and control. Introducing concepts such as variances and projections proved very useful.

This internationally renowned university has been using our services for over 10 years. To begin with they wanted to develop a finance course for their staff including lecturers, heads of department, and Deans. Given that their focus is on the delivery of education it was always going to be challenging to encourage them to take responsibility for budgets. Time has shown how important these skills now are as the funding of higher education has changed. Universities in the UK have moved to a position where student fees now represent the majority of their funding, and new independent income streams need to be developed. Some of these are commercial in nature and financial skills are now essential for University staff. We have been able to assist in the transition and our budgeting course remains popular. In addition, we provide training on the Bribery Act and Fraud Awareness, along with Cash Handling

We were invited into this London local authority to assist with the training and development of staff across all departments. A comprehensive training needs assessment had been undertaken highlighting a range of areas of skills development. We were invited to develop programmes to meet the training needs in the area of finance. The requirements included training staff in budgeting, budget monitoring and control, as well as using the financial systems. In addition it was recognised that the finance staff supporting managers also required training. Our solution was to develop 4 programmes which included SAP training. As part of the delivery we produced training manuals for the courses and assisted with the development of an in-house user manual for SAP. We have now worked with this authority for 15 years and they continue to be one of our clients. Over this period of time our programs have developed with the changing needs and environment. The participants now use our online assessments as a pre-course benchmark , and all budget holders have access to SAP , and use it in the budgetary control process. This organisation ensures training in this area is available for all new staff and those who wish to refresh their skills by integrating it into their management development courses.