The pathway to success, shared by everyone…

Created by two ex-Royal Engineers tired of poorly conceived and executed career courses and advice provision, BV Associates Ltd is now nationally recognised as a quality provider of training and consultancy.  Our journey has not been easy as a small fish in a large pond, and there have been noteworthy and not so noteworthy years, many moments of doubt and periods of stress.  Throughout, we have kept two things in mind: our roots and our clients’ needs.

Dean and Chris joined the MoD as Sappers, private soldiers in the Royal Engineers. Although they did not know it, they had already shared similar backgrounds putting them on the path to meet up at the end of their military careers.  Both Dean and Chris had lost their fathers at a young age and this early loss of a key family member left them with a desire to overcome adversity, a desire to support others around them and a determination to succeed. During their time in the Services, Chris progressed through the ranks becoming a Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM) before taking a short Commission as an Officer. Dean left the ranks to attend the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst having been selected for a Commission after saving a fellow soldiers life and receiving a Commendation for Bravery.

Serving together at the Royal School of Military Engineering at the end of the careers, Dean and Chris conceived an idea for a company that offered quality training provision, consultancy services and provided a stepping stone for service personnel to find employment.  Dean had plans to deliver project management and Chris a health and safety consultancy and training company, so there was a natural merging of minds. Dean had grown up with hardworking parents who ran a successful training company so embraced emerging technology to simplify administrative procedures through the infancy of our Learning Management System. (LMS).  Dean and Chris’s collective efforts ensure learners are continually informed of the training journey with us at the press of a button.  Chris, now CMIOSH and a highly accomplished consultant, and Dean, with his own team of trainers and advisors who understand the importance of standards, continue to forge a successful partnership shining a light on the pathway for those who choose the health, safety and project management route. Since 2010, we have grown with the support of our tutors, learners and clients to now offer over 150 course types and a consultancy service that puts our clients first.  Our team of tutors come from the same background (work and personal) and share the same values having themselves served in the Armed Forces, been married to service personnel, or served in Ambulance and Fire Service.

Our Director of Marketing, Lisa Corrinna is Dean’s wife, who has been by his side for 21 years of military service and whilst growing the company.  Lisa keeps the partnership in check, having worked as an English Heritage apprentice and then working at prestigious construction sites across the UK as a fully qualified Specialist Painter and Decorator – she knows first-hand the attitudes, ethos, barriers and constraints of working in this sector.  Our Head of Training Operations, Nik Taylor, left the services as a Warrant Officer Class 1 and is now a Major with the Reserves. Claire Carlton joined the company 3.5 years ago and is now employed full time as our Lead Training Advisor.  Both are consummate professionals and rightly receive constant praise for their training and administrative support.  Claire and Nik’s determination to provide additional support above and beyond other providers is what makes people come back to us time and time again for their training needs. When training with us our learners are part of the family and we share their ups and downs, failures and successes. Many stay in touch and let us know how they are getting on with their own careers – this remains one of the most enjoyable aspects of what we do and drives us on.

This year, like so many other companies, we were hit hard by the pandemic, but the same determination to succeed against all odds enabled us as a business to focus our attention on virtual and online training.  As before, we did not simply want to provide the same level of service and training, it had to be better and clearer.  We will surely return to the classroom and provide face-to-face training at some stage, but in the interim people are seizing the benefits of working from home or studying remotely. The feedback has been better than even we could have imagined!  The virtual training is now organic and through the use of break out rooms, discussion forums and embedded media or student social networks, our students are achieving some amazing results, helping and supporting each other and, moreover, growing in confidence.  We’ve had to adapt our consultancy arm to, with many clients sending their workforce home to work remotely.  The answer was simple, adapt.  We now continue to support our clients in person and remotely through video conferencing. We have also taken our employee training online and added additional health and safety services (such as our Face Fit Testing and Covid Risk Assessments).

So, whilst the future may be unclear, and it may not be a return to ‘as it was before’ – we will continue to adapt and change to whatever is thrown at us with two things integral to all we do – where we came from and meeting the needs of our clients.

What is the secret to our success: You! and we challenge anyone to come experience first-hand why people choose BV Associates Ltd.