A LEADING surveying and consents management practice, which has an office in Glasgow, has a launched its own training academy to develop its consultants as part of its ambitious growth plans.
Ardent, which currently employs around 125 staff at offices in London, Birmingham, Leeds, Warrington, Glasgow and Dublin, has created the Ardent Academy to support team members through professional qualifications and offer development opportunities to others.
The Ardent Academy will offer a mix of written and video resources to the company’s teams across the country, who have expertise in the transport, renewables, utilities and regeneration sectors, as well as live sessions.
All of the material is being provided by senior leaders within the company.
The training programme will include a mix of hard and soft skills and will also incorporate site visits hosted by Ardent’s clients who are undertaking major regeneration and infrastructure projects.
Ardent is also in the process of rolling out a wider coaching programme across the whole business that will underpin the learning of those in the Academy and throughout the company.
John Sayer, Head of Regeneration at Ardent, has led on the company’s new academy which is a key strand of the business’s vision to double in size over the next three years.
He said: “We are very proud to launch the Ardent Academy with a first cohort of around 25 members of the team across the UK taking up the opportunity to learn from more senior colleagues.
“Offering ongoing training and development is a core strand of our vision for the business over the coming years. It is vitally important that we maintain and enhance the level of expertise we offer to clients across our key sectors and, on top of that, we want everyone to know that they can enjoy a long and successful career with opportunities to grow within the business.”
The programme topics for the Ardent Academy include The Compulsory Purchase Process, Land and Property Inspection and Management, Access and Rights Over Land, Property Valuation, Conflict Avoidance, and Client Care.
The learning resources will be hosted on Ardent’s own bespoke database system, ATLAS, which has been created by its own in-house software developers, building on an existing system developed for its client data.
It means that the programme could, eventually, be open to Ardent’s clients’ staff for their own development needs.
John added: “As an industry, we need to attract and retain more people and, as a business, the Ardent Academy is our contribution to supporting the development of professionals and leaders of the future.”
Until recently, the company was known as Ardent Management but has rebranded with a focus on its four key sectors of transport, renewables, utilities and regeneration.
