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14/12/2009 - Training boom at Avanta centres

Training boom at Avanta centres By Geraint Evans, Avanta’s sales & marketing director The recession is not just affecting how people use their office space , but it’s having a dramatic effect on how and where management training is taking place. Avanta is one of London’s leading operators of business centres and has witnessed the number of training organisations relocating to its centres more than quadruple from just 3% to 18% in the past 12 months. In addition, the company has also witnessed substantial numbers of organisations from within the retail, consultancy and public sectors increasingly using its training and meeting facilities on a pay-as–you-go basis. These growth figures are supported by a recent survey of 318 SMEs conducted by Ecademy which found that 21% of respondents are now conducting training at business centres, whilst some 57% had used or had considered the professional business environment at such centres to be the ideal choice. Whilst many businesses undertake training to help them reach strategic goals, an increasing number are also using the government-funded ‘Train to Gain’ schemes in order to help them improve their businesses performance. Avanta provides modern, roomy and light training, conference and meeting rooms at 18 UK locations, including 13 in London as well as centres in Harrow , Heathrow , Reading , Manchester and Edinburgh . Business centres have always attracted an extremely wide range of clients from diverse business sectors, but the rapid growth in training organisations taking serviced office space at Avanta centres during the past year has resulted in the sector becoming the single largest client base, ahead of technology companies (12%) and those in the banking & finance sector (11%). “Despite the economic downturn, companies are still investing in training,” comments Heidi Daniell of Accelerator Solutions, which is based at Avanta’s Lyric Square business centre in Hammersmith . “They are also looking closely at cost and how, and where, the results will strategically impact their business. “Many companies are now looking for quick hits and fairly immediate business success following training courses and so there’s a fine balance between those that seek fast results and those that appreciate that management training is a long term investment which may not produce meaningful results until maybe 12 months later. In fact, leadership training results may take 12+ months to impact on a business. “We started Accelerator Solutions ten years ago and have been based in serviced office centres from day one.  It’s not cost-effective for us to have dedicated full-time training facilities, as these would be a drain on our overheads when sitting empty. So the key benefit of being located in a business centre is the ability to access well-equipped training rooms on a pay-as-you-go basis. This is a major factor in reducing operating costs for both ourselves and our clients.  “We moved to Avanta’s Hammersmith business centre in April 2007 as it has great transportation links and our clients are extremely impressed by the high quality of the building and helpfulness of Avanta’s reception staff.  Its training rooms are all well equipped with state-of-the-art AV equipment, natural daylight and even the smallest room is large enough for our trainers to move about during presentations. “An additional benefit for us is that the Avanta team are always on hand to deal with emergencies such as equipment breakages which can happen at any time.  This can be disastrous if it’s your own equipment, but we know the Avanta team are on hand to fix problems, so we don’t have to start running around trying to find plugs, cables or bulbs.  “There was already a sea change in the way that organisations undertook training before the recession helped to sharpen their focus on more efficient processes.  For instance, many companies that previously conducted in-house training are now downsizing due to the current economic climate and converting their training rooms to office space to reduce their overheads. So off-site training facilities, such as those in business centres, are the ideal answer for training organisations and their clients. “We are also finding that off-site training is being requested by an increasing number of chief executives who appreciate that training actually works much better when conducted out of the office. There are no distractions and trainees can’t pop back to their desks to check their emails or make phone calls, so they stay more focussed and therefore the training is more beneficial. “In addition to using Avanta’s training rooms at Hammersmith, we can use the facilities at all of Avanta’s 18 UK locations at a discounted rate, which all have easy access to public transport.  This is a key benefit for us as our clients are based throughout the UK, and many overseas countries, so good public transport access is crucial. “Accelerator Solutions specialises in supporting management and sales and our results-driven training, development and research solutions have been designed to bring pace to change...through people.  We know that clients want their business to be the best it can be and that means empowering and energising their people. This in turn creates a dynamic, innovative company, loyal customers and enhanced profitability.” Another of the growing number of training organisations advocating the use of business centres is London Corporate Training (LCT) which has been using Avanta centres for the past 18 months. “LCT is a management training provider offering short courses (1-3 weeks) in every aspect of management,” comments Rohit Chandiramani, LCT’s business development manager.  “Registrations on LCT’s courses are a seasonal affair and we tend to experience greater demand from June right through until just before Christmas. “However, the first three or four months of the year are usually quiet and that is when our requirements for meeting and training rooms drop significantly.  So the option to book rooms as the need arises greatly outweighs the cost of renting rooms on an annual basis and it gives us far better budget control. “Whilst our core business is the delivery of training, customer service is a crucial factor to our ongoing business success. With Avanta this extends from having receptionists to meet our clients on arrival right through to the provision of wireless internet, whiteboards, flipcharts and markers in the training rooms and tea/coffee/water and PCs and photocopiers in the breakout areas. We know that this attention to detail impresses our clients and reflects well on the LCT brand.” The high quality of facilities available at Avanta’s business centres, together with the ability to conduct training seminars on a pay-as-you-go basis, is clearly proving to be the ideal solution for an increasing number of training organisations across the UK.   With training proving an invaluable business tool during the recession this number is set to increase even further.