St Helens Chamber has welcomed John Westhead, their new Director of Training Services, to their Senior Management Team.
Highly experienced in the world of training, John joins the Chamber after 11 years in senior training positions in Lancashire.
He is now relishing the opportunity to bring his expertise to St Helens and support many more local people and businesses invest in their futures through training.
John says: “I’m very excited to join such a high performing training provider and get involved with the wide provision of training on offer at St Helens Chamber, whether this is our free courses to help job seekers find their next opportunity, programmes for young people at the very start of their working lives, or advanced and higher level Apprenticeship training for experienced business professionals.”
John began his career working in engineering and manufacturing firms and has also worked in a number of public and private sector organisations, so understands the pressures businesses face. Having gone down the vocational training route himself, he is passionate and committed to highlighting the benefits of Apprenticeships to businesses in the region.
John wants to ensure that St Helens Chamber continues to help people to realise their ambitions and create the highest calibre of talent for local employers.
He adds: “The last couple of years have been very turbulent times for training providers, since the 2017 Apprenticeship reforms. Only the best performing providers like St Helens Chamber have weathered this storm well, however there are still challenges ahead as work continues to meet the Government’s ambitions for Apprenticeships.
“I am excited to be able to help St Helens Chamber meet these challenges and become even stronger in the years ahead.
“Our achievement rates and Ofsted report are already something to be extremely proud of. There there are lots more businesses and individuals in St Helens and across the Liverpool City Region who could be benefitting from our training, so my mission for the next few years is to get the message out there to even more people and continue to expand the range of training available.”
Kath Boullen, Chief Executive at St Helens Chamber, comments: “St Helens Chamber has a proud and long history of delivering high quality training to businesses and people across a wide range of sectors and occupations.
“We have recently made a significant investment in our new Digital Training Centre, Clickworks, supported by partner funding and the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. Now is the right time to take our services to the next level, and John has the experience, capability and ideas to do that. I am delighted to welcome him to the team.”
