At Grow we build strong, lasting partnerships with the organisations and individuals we work with, allowing us to deliver results focused training and coaching solutions.
We believe in:
Read more in our timeline to find out about where it all began and our journey so far!
2011
The Seeds of an Idea
Founder Amie was on maternity leave with her second child and was reflecting on what she really wanted out of her future career. Her job as a Director in a Further Education College was no longer providing the levels of excitement and challenge she wanted. Amie knew that to take the next step on the career ladder, she would have to make sacrifices that would impact on her time spent with her children. Amie decided to set up her own business. It wouldn’t be easy but she felt it was the best option to allow her to work in a role she loved whilst having added flexibility to keep a good balance between her work and family life.
2012
Naming the Baby!
In the Summer of 2012, after many name ideas and suggestions, ‘Grow Development Solutions’ was born! Amie wanted the name to reflect her business goals to grow and develop people, enabling them to reach their full potential. The services to be offered by Grow would provide people with the opportunity to do just that – to grow, both in their work and personal lives so the name grew out of the idea (quite literally!)
2012
2012
Getting Formal
On September 27 th 2012, Grow Development Solutions Ltd was officially registered and incorporated, birthing the business formally.
2012
Developing the Look
Grow got its first company logo, designed with the strapline, ‘Grow your People, Grow your Business’. The initial intentions were to work solely with other businesses, so our main focus was on designing bespoke people development solutions for organisations.
2012
2012
Google Us!
As 2012 came to a close we launched our first website, this was to ensure we had a presence online should anyone decide to ‘google’ us!
2012
Our First Partners
At the end of the year, we had already started conversations with two potential ‘partners’. Amie made it clear that Grow Development Solutions wasn’t going to have clients, instead we would have partners who we would work with collaboratively to create learning and development solutions to meet their needs.
2012
2013
The First Programme
We designed and launched our first bespoke management programme, which quickly grew from one group to four groups in the first year. This was followed by an add-on programme to support those transitioning from management into leadership. We began providing one-to-one coaching services to managers and leaders for a range of organisations in the public and private sectors.
2013
Working with Others
To enable the business to grow and provide greater opportunities to get our business known, Amie started to work with other organisations to facilitate network groups specialising in coaching and professional development.
2013
2013
Training Trainers
We started providing training services for other training providers and educational establishments, delivering bespoke management programmes, teacher training and coaching courses.
2014
The ‘Big’ Year
2014 was a big year of planning and working ‘on’ the business. It was a year of focus on our business development, growth strategy and developing new relationships with partners who we would be working with over the coming years.
2014
2014
Planting Seeds
We decided to grow our offering to begin providing ‘open’ training programmes, meaning that individuals from organisations or those who were self-employed could join. This decision took us down the route of applying to become an ILM and City & Guilds Approved Centre.
2015
The Roses of Success
After our ‘big’ year, 2015 was full of celebration as we were successful in achieving ‘Approved Centre’ status with the ILM. This big step meant we could now deliver our own ILM qualifications and it also enabled us to gain accreditation for bespoke programmes we were designing for our partners.
2015
2015
The First ‘Open’ Programme
Continuing the expansion and growth of our business, we launched our first ‘open’ programme (ILM Level 5 Coaching & Mentoring qualification). This allowed us to offer our programmes to the general public and no longer focus on solely providing services directly to organisations.
2015
On the Up
The number of partners we started to work with grew rapidly this year, bringing in work with some big brands like Mercedes-Benz.
2015
2015
Growing the Team
Amie recruited her first two associates within the business to support the growing need and demand for designing and delivering bespoke leadership and management and coaching courses.
2015
Giving Something Back!
As part of Amie’s commitment to supporting others, she joined the EMCC (European Mentoring and Coaching Council) as a volunteer to help support their membership services team. This was a great opportunity to work with others to support the EMCC.
2015
2016
Supporting Work in the Education and Training Sector
To provide a wider range of courses to our partners we became approved to deliver formal teacher training and assessing qualifications accredited through City & Guilds. Enabling us to deliver courses to support others wanting to work in the training and education sector. Further growth of our associate team enabled us to do this successfully.
2016
Steady Growth
A very solid and steady year of business, with a growing number of delegates joining our ‘open’ programmes. We strengthened partnerships with our existing partners by continuing to design and deliver new bespoke programmes for them.
2016
2016
Growing Our Team
More associates joined our business in 2016, which enabled us to develop more business partnerships to deliver bespoke training and coaching services. [No changes needed!]
2016
Success on our ILM Qualification Programmes!
In 2016, we were very proud to formally certificate over 40 of our delegates on our coaching and leadership qualifications.
2016
2017
Providing Stability to Our Team!
We recruited the first permanent member of our training team, to support the growing number of associates working in the business. It was fantastic to have someone else working in our business permanently to support our business growth.
2017
New Sprouts
More new partnership contracts were signed, and we revisited existing partnerships to help them develop further. We started work on one of our largest contracts in the automotive sector for a national leadership and management programme.
2017
2017
Planning Our ‘Move’!
With a growing team of associates and as a growing business, we decided to start looking for suitable business premises, where our main office could be based.
2018
Moving Day
Early in 2018 we moved into our first office premises with celebrations all round – it was great to have a ‘proper’ base for our team.
2018
2017
Putting Down New Roots
Our business contracts continued to expand, and we started to deliver a new accredited leadership programme for Honda U.K. We started working with other organisations in sectors that were new to us – this was a very interesting and exciting year!
2019
Adapting to Change
Presented with the many challenges around Brexit, our contracts changed a lot this year and we switched back to our usual ‘associate’ staffing structure to better meet the needs and demands of the partners. This allowed us to grow our Associate Team, providing a greater level of expertise on our training programmes.
2019
2019
Developing Our ‘Open’ Programmes
With a lot of interest in our open coaching programmes we decided to add to our existing courses. We gained accreditation to deliver the ILM Level 7 for Executive & Senior Level Coaches and Mentors (Certificate & Diploma), which enabled us to reach a larger audience for our ‘open’ programmes.
2020
Fresh Challenges
Affected by external challenges (like every other person and business across the globe) – all of our work was moved online. Whilst we had already been delivering some training and coaching services online, this equated to around 10% of our work previously. This rapidly changed to 100% in April 2020!
2020
2020
Growing Our ‘Accredited’ Programmes
We launched eight new courses that are fully approved and certified by The Institute of Leadership & Management, allowing us to now offer a wider range of certified management, leadership and coaching facilitation programmes.
2020
A Fresh New Look!
After nearly eight years of the existing logo, it was time to give ourselves a new look. Our fresh new logo was designed and launched.
2020
2020
The New Website
After spending the last 3-4 years deliberating over updating the website and making changes to our branding, we finally did it and here it is!
2020
EMCC EQA Accreditation
To demonstrate the high-quality of our coach training provision, we have been awarded the EMCC Global Quality Award (EQA) at Senior Practitioner level and Practitioner level.
2020
2021
New Online Learning Platform Goes Live!
To provide more streamlined and effective online learning solutions for our course participants, we have ‘gone live’ with our new online learning platform, which allows us to provide a high-quality blended learning experience.
2022
Growing our Partnerships
We started working with 10 new partners, delivering a range of Team Coaching, Leadership & Management bespoke training and In-House Coach training.
2022
2022
New Launch of First Online Self-Paced Coaching Programme
We are now offering a Level 3 Coaching qualification as an online self-paced programme, giving participants the opportunity to study at their own pace.
2023
Another Successful ILM Audit!
In April, we completed another successful ILM Audit, demonstrating the highest quality of training, support, and assessment, provided to our participants. Maintaining our direct claim status means we can self-certify our participants work, safe in the knowledge that we are maintaining the rigorous standards of the ILM!
2023