By Sarah Walker
A national training provider based on Aycliffe Business Park is celebrating five years in business, during which it has grown from having two directors to employing 25 staff.
Founders of NC Group Ian Nelson and Lee Childs are celebrating the firm’s “fifth birthday”, with a look back at how far it has come, from the days Ian left his job in 2017 and began working 18-hour extremely long days, travelling all over the country to establish the work-based learning and commercial training company.
During the first year, Lee also worked hard to help grow the business while remaining with his employer, but between them, the pair, who worked from home until the business was well into its second year, have “put in a lot of hours” in the hope of achieving better for themselves and their families.
At the end of the first year following months of investment, the pair were left with just £75 in the company’s bank account.
But their perseverance paid off, with a steady increase in contracts and funding to deliver training in years two and three, that enabled them to grow their course offering.
Now, after five years in business, NC Group Limited is delivering high quality bespoke training across the country, at the same time as being the prime training provider for numerous neighbours on the park, including INEOS, Gestamp and Tekmar.
“We are proud to be celebrating our fifth year in business and the fact we have rolled out our training programmes across Aycliffe Business Park,” Ian says.
“After five years in business, we are stronger than ever and we are proud to be celebrating success as a key industrial training provider.
“I think it’s a great achievement, especially with regards to all the challenges we have faced over the years – including the pandemic.”
NC Group was in its fourth year when the lockdown forced by the coronavirus pandemic struck, meaning the firm had to move its training provision online.
However, despite the challenge, NC Group grew to 15 staff in this year, and also made its third crucial office move to Aycliffe Business Park, which enabled it to double its commercial training income.
“Being on the park has allowed us to increase our commercial training by 100%,” Ian says.
“We engaged with employers like INEOS and moved to bigger premises, so we were able to provide training on site.
“The business park is fundamental to us, and we are continuously engaging more and more employers from the park.
“We can see significant growth in demand for commercial training and work-based learning has doubled – people are using us more and more.”
Ian says he is “really proud” of NC Group’s five years of success, as well as the fact that in the training sector, the company is renowned for being one of the best quality providers, creating bespoke training solutions for its clients.
“We go into organisations and establish what their training needs are and we develop specific programmes to suit their requirements,” Ian says, adding success is only possible through the hard work and dedication of its staff.
“Seeing our staff develop bespoke programmes to achieve the exceptional feedback that we get is phenomenal.”
“We would like to say thank you to our staff and show our appreciation for all the hard work that they do to help us deliver high quality training and achieve our growth plans.”
The firm, which has contracts in Birmingham the North-West and Cumbria as well as the North-East, will be continuing to expand its team in the years ahead and “grow with our existing partners”.
It will also be looking to continue its exceptional track record, which sees its learners constantly achieve highly, while the firm itself boasts an overall achievement rate for its delivery of 99.9%.
For more information, visit ncgroupltd.co.uk.
