Partner Article

Office assistant works her way up

An educational publisher in Sunderland has taken on a new director – one who started on the bottom rung.

Lyndsay Jones, 27, who was previously business manager at CiA Training, has become a joint shareholder in the company, alongside founder and Managing Director Ian Chapman.

Ian said: “Our other founding member Brian Waldram retired in 2009, and for some time we have been thinking about succession planning within the organisation. Lyndsay has been with us for 10 years, and joined the team as Office Assistant. I distinctly remember asking her in an early appraisal what she expected to be doing in ten years’ time, and her answer was ‘your job!’”

Lyndsay said: “It was a cheeky comment but it’s actually turned out like that!

“It’s a great company. I’ve always enjoyed working for CiA, and it’s great now to be involved in a different role. There’s a fantastic team, a strong client base, and I’m looking forward to the opportunities ahead.”

CiA Training began life in 1985 as an IT training company, and is now one of the region’s most prominent educational publishers.

As the UK moves into recovery in 2010, the directors are planning to increase their presence in secondary schools with a focus on new GCSE qualifications, whilst further developing their e-learning and digital range.

Lyndsay said: “We’ve actually had one of our best years. There’s been a focus on retraining and we found a niche in that area of the market, so we’ve come out of the recession quite strong.”

CiA Training employs nine people from its base at the North East Business and Innovation Centre (BIC), and supplies titles to a global client list, including further and higher education bodies, schools, local government, health care, training organisations and individual learners.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .