What our clients say

I joined a course with Pro Development through my employment with Ebuyer. I was a manager of a big team through progression within the business, and never had any training. This led me to a position where I understand the business and it’s goals, but not necessarily the proper way of dealing with correct scenarios. I knew how to deal with business and staff, but never knew how unique each member was and how each scenario needed to be deal with differently.

Due to this, I went on the Leadership and Management course in York with Pro Development. The experience was nothing short of fantastic, I was nervous going into this course due to it being completely new to me and doing learning for the first time in several years, I was never great in a classroom environment growing up, but this was completely different, refreshing and a great way of learning.

Personally, the program helped me develop and come out of my shell and understand my style a lot more. It taught me that every manager is good for different reasons, we’re not all the same and have unique characteristics that help us perform correctly in our jobs.

It also benefitted me within my role at Ebuyer, and it benefitted the people I worked with in many ways. It taught me every scenario is different; everything needs dealing with carefully and other people need different support. It also taught me a lot about dealing with difficult scenarios, being a young manager I often struggled trying to lead and mentor people older than me, due to them being pushy with my guidance. This course helped me with that, it helped me show them different ways so they felt less taught, and more coached along.

I valued the full experience start to finish, this was fantastic for me. Abbie was great, thoroughly helped me and made me feel comfortable within the course.

 

We have worked with Michelle and her team at Pro Development for many years and the professional service and customer support we receive is always outstanding. The team at Pro Development are experts in supporting SMEs and their warm and accessible approach leaves delegates on their programs inspired and confident to take their learnings into their everyday roles.

 

Recently Michelle supported our Junior Board at Benenden Health as they transitioned from one project into the next with members to debrief and offboard, new members to onboard, and team to build. This required reflective workshops, coaching, an experiential day at Ripley Castle, setting standards, having honest conversations and holding on another to account. Michelle brought energy, enthusiasm and her expertise to this piece of work and it left a lasting imprint on the new Junior Board.

We are keen to provide our management team with skills to lead and manage their teams and bring about improvements in the business.  Unfortunately we have not had the budget so far to be able to provide training to the whole team but instead have identified those who would most benefit from the Skills Bootcamp programme.

The Pro Development team have been amazing from alerting us in the first instance to the Bootcamp and the funding that was available and with good communication prior to, during and at the end of the programme from Abi who was delivering the course.

The two participants who have attended the programme have approached it enthusiastically and have got a lot out of it.  One attendee was new to managing a team, the other had been in the role for 12-18 months but both came away from the training having learnt new skills and benefited from the knowledge sharing with other participants, particularly through the Action Learning Groups.  They are also noticeably more confident in their interactions with their teams.

We have worked with Pro Development now for several years and love their approach.  They are really invested in working with us to identify the desired outcomes of any training or projects and then delivering on these.

I attended the Inspiring Leaders Boot Camp 6-month course to help understand myself better in the workplace with regards to my managerial style and learning skills to assist in managing others and managing time

Everyone was approachable and answered questions fairly.

The course made me think about how others work and how I interact with them.  Outcomes of the course include creating a calmer environment to work in, learning to delegate tasks better and learning to have more time for myself.

The thing I valued the most at my time with Pro-Development was the ease of joining in and the hospitality given.

This course has exceeded my expectations. The course content was great and really helpful, but the way in which it was delivered was fantastic. The combination of different activities kept us all engaged and the variety was really good. It has been without a shadow of a doubt the best, most engaging course I have been on. Lee and Abi at truly fantastic at making everyone feel included and heard.

I feel much better about myself and my worth. I will take these skills with me in my
future. I am very fortunate to have done this course and I really feel I enjoyed it. I cannot praise Lee and Abi enough they are fabulous!

All sessions were clear, well planned and flowed well. Allowed time and discussions when questions were raised. Sessions were full and engaging. Good biscuit selection!

This course has had a big impact on me. It’s empowered me to do really important self reflection on who I am as a leader and continue to grow within work and life. Lee and Abi have both been sensational themselves, offering a really thought provoking and practical course which has really built my skills and confidence. I’m also very grateful to my fellow learners for great insights in the ALG sessions.

I have found the programme really great. The group as a whole were supportive and helpful. You build the trust between each other which is encouraged by the trainers. I will miss the value of the ALG’s. This is the best training that I have received.

Thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience, the course was an “experience” rather than a training course. Lee and Abi present with such animation and enthusiasm you cannot help being drawn into the subject matter. Hope to attend further courses in the future!

The training allowed me to think more critically than before and look for things to continuously improve. I learnt to be more self reflective – very thing for me was learning about forms of communication. Pro-Development were engaging and excellent throughout.

Very positive impact – the training helped me to look at things from a different perspective.
It was a good learning curve. I feel the program opened my eyes to look at things in a different way.

Exceeded my expectations as to what I’d get out of it, with building in confidence and highlighting lots more things to build on to become a better leader.

Joanne Baker has been a brilliant teacher. Very patient and approachable. Able to apply what we have learned not just to our work life, but our personal life too.
It really opened my eyes into the person I am. Not only that but my communication skills have changed a lot and able to read tone and voice to get best results.

The training has been a huge eye opener for me and has had a massive impact on the way that I handle almost every situation as a leader within Schneider. I believe it has equipped me with the tools I require to continue to grow and progress in my career.

It’s been a well structured course. It has had team debates, good interactions, creating a good team environment enabling great team discussions. I believe as well that the ALGs were fantastic and I would love to continue these. I believe could bring great benefits to the site. Should have more one to ones. Wouldn’t be team leader if I did not have mine. All modules were well presented and the booklets had all the information we needed.

The course in general was engaging, I feel I have learned a lot about myself more than just being a team leader some personal aspects too. I’ve grown in confidence in my work environment and home life.

The outlook I have from this whole course is that it has helped me tremendously, Joanne’s support and coaching has been second to none. My whole mindset has changed and I believe I am now closer to the team leader I need to be and who my team need me to be. The tools and models we have used throughout the course have already been implemented into my role.

Training content was good, interactive activity got us engaged and made the sessions very different.
The training has given me loads of skills and tools to be a more effective leader. It has challenged my thinking and made me more aware of my actions and how my team perceive me.

Working for NYBEP for over 15 years, I have first had witnessed the changing external and internal landscape and culture of the business.

Following COVID and a number of leavers, we felt it was the right time to visit Employee Engagement to help us pull together a structured plan.

It was important to work with an external agency, to make sure we received honest and constructive feedback in a managed environment.

Working with the team at Pro Development has been extremely helpful, they have been supportive, challenging and helped us to both reflect backwards and look forward. The team have been compassionate and also proactive in helping to find creative solutions that fit the business.

The impact has been across the business, helping us to increase our communication to the team in a multitude of ways, introduce a new performance review system and procedures that provides clarity and ensure employee wellbeing is always on our agenda.

The training was extremely interesting and beneficial. The progress I have made in my skills, knowledge and confidence has been incredible. Having such a supportive coach
in Abi and group of people has been a fantastic grounding for myself and my new business. The activities during the course have given me many learning opportunities. Overall a brilliant course.

It helped me to understand that moving into a management role, I already possessed some of the qualities and skills required of a leader. It has helped me to develop key learnings to become an even better leader. Abi has been a fantastic coach. Well presented course throughout. The content and knowledge provided has been excellent. I couldn’t have asked
for a better coach.

The training helped me build confidence in my capabilities. I helped my team grow and understand them better!

The course has re inspired me. Helped me to pick myself up and start again. Lots of great tools and learning around communication styles, feedback models and goal setting. Some of which have already helped implement better one to ones, provide clear direction and help me be a better leader.

The training has been invaluable and relevant to work and life in general. The way the course is taught is inclusive and takes into consideration how different everyone learns. It can be daunting going on courses but with Pro-Development it has been such fun! I can’t wait for my next course!

Given me insight into my communication, learning, leadership styles enabling me to learn self-awareness and how my behaviour affects/impacts others. Knowing this has allowed me to understand what type of leader I want to develop into. Inspiring, innovative, creative and forward thinking into new products, with the skills to create strong team bonds.

As a course leader Abi is outstanding. Her ability to support the needs of all the delegates is superb. This has helped me immensely during a challenging time. Content of the training is of high quality and will be integral to me as I continue to improve my own leadership and management skills.

The course was fantastic. I would definitely recommend this to someone in a manager leadership role. Abi delivered this amazingly, especially as this was her first one.
The inspiring leaders course, has been a great way to interact with other leaders from other sectors. It has refreshed previous skills but I have learned so many more skills, techniques that I will take away in my work/personal life. Thank you to Abi for being so professional, inspiring and it’s been a great experience!

The training has had a hugely positive impact on me. It has given me not only the information and tools required to be a successful leader, but also the confidence to put them into practice myself.

Very informative, interactive and engaging. Really enjoyed this course. Felt I learnt a lot to take forward with useful tools for the future which can be implemented. Thanks Abi & Will.

Built on learning and insight from “Honest Conversations”. Identifying DISC profile/communication style was very powerful and helpful for me personally. Exercise on responding to other DISC styles was very useful and can start to practice immediately.

Definitely good to have co-facilitators/presenters. I feel I will be able to communicate in a more confident and direct way.