NORTH EAST business support firm Enterprise Made Simple has enhanced their digital training offer with the appointment of a new Training Director.
James Lane, who boasts a 15 year career in IT and training, steps into the director role fresh from Raw Digital Training, where he held a senior role in the development and delivery of digital skills and social media training. At Enterprise Made Simple, his focus will be on the launch of HypeStar, a unique digital skills development arm that aims to fill a gap in the market, and in the skills of North East SMEs.
With a wealth of experience in both technical IT support, marketing and training, James has developed a reputation as leader in his field. Having started his career in IT support with EDS, a Hewlett Packard acquisition, James discovered his natural ability to train others following a chance trip to the USA, sixteen years ago. Although EDS had sent James to take part in a training seminar, he found himself delivering the training because of staff illness.
As James describes, it was a pivotal moment: “Whilst I’d intended to enjoy my trip to the states and come back to the UK full of ideas and new skills from the course my then employer had sent me on, I ended up finding a real flair for training delivery. So much so, that the company I helped out during those few days asked me to stay on. This resulted me living and working in the USA for three years, where I developed and delivered courses in management methodology. Whilst I was in the USA, I learned that to be able to do something requires a certain skill set, but to be able to teach and pass that knowledge on requires something more. I’m fortunate that I discovered my ability when I did.”
James returned to the UK in 2008, the point at which social media was evolving from a means of sharing social information and connecting with people, into a fully-fledged marketing tool that could be used to support business success.
Thanks to his background in IT and an instinctive understanding of the value of these burgeoning digital tools, James began to use these marketing techniques as part of his role as Marketing Manager for a garden centre chain. Armed with the practical knowledge he needed, and recognising that digital marketing had vast potential in boosting company growth and success, James set out to train and mentor businesses in the skills they needed.
Following a spell as an independent consultant and a directorship at Raw Digital, James is looking forward to being part of the launch of Hype Star, which will offer a range of accredited and non-accredited courses aimed at supporting pre-start entrepreneurs and established businesses to use social media and digital marketing to support the achievement of their business objectives.
Whilst James will be supporting other businesses to thrive, he will also play a key role at the Enterprise Made Simple group, which celebrates eight years in business this year. Having helped budding entrepreneurs to gain the skills required to launch and grow nearly 1600 businesses, with an associated 3000 jobs in the last three years alone, the Group has ambitious plans to support an estimated 2000 businesses to succeed in the coming two years.
Commenting on the appointment, he said: “I am thrilled to become part of the Enterprise Made Simple team. I’ve admired the way in which they deliver their training, mentoring and business support services for some time, and their incredible results speak for themselves. In helping to launch and develop HypeStar, I expect to see even greater results as we support yet more pre-starts and established businesses to capitalise on the incredible power of digital and social media marketing.”
To find out more about Enterprise Made Simple visit www.enterprisemadesimple.co.uk