Acacia Training turns 20

Today is our 20^th birthday and as we celebrate training 35,000 learners since we began, we’ve been looking back at how Acacia Training has grown over the last two decades.

Our founders, Vikki Sylvester and her mum Anne Littleton, started Acacia in September 2000. As a registered nurse and the owner of a care home, Vikki was frustrated at the lack of high quality training to meet their needs – so they decided to start their own training company, specialising in health and social care.

From humble beginnings, Acacia Training has grown from two founding members to 80 staff, training 3,500 people a year in health, social care, early years, beauty, dental nursing, business and management. We’ve worked with over 7,000 employers.

In 2017, we merged with a PLC, now known as MBH Corporation, and two years later Victoria was voted on to MBH’s Board as an Executive Director.

Vikki also won Entrepreneur of the Year at the Sentinel Business Awards in July. She says: “Mum and I both worked in the care sector and experienced the struggle to recruit and retain quality care staff. We wanted to improve access to high-quality training, so we decided to set up our own company. I never imagined that 20 years later we’d be training more than 3,500 learners across a range of sectors each year.”

She adds: “Despite our expansion, we’ve still maintained that family feel and remain passionate about supporting our employees and learners and ensuring that people gain the skills they need to thrive in their chosen career.”

Acacia Training was one of the first organisations in the UK to gain ‘disability confident leader’ status and we were awarded silver status by HealthWorks Stoke-on-Trent, which recognises organisations that promote and support workplace health and wellbeing.

Vikki explains: “As a company, social responsibility is extremely important to us. We also support forces veterans through our work with local charities and signing the armed forces covenant to ensure we are able to support those leaving the army, navy and RAF. More recently we joined the B1G1 initiative, which encourages our whole team to nominate global causes, and I use my own salary to donate funds to that cause.”

Vikki adds: “I’d like to say a big thank you to all our staff, clients and learners, partners and suppliers who have been a part of this 20-year journey. We are more passionate than ever about our commitment to supporting people into jobs and apprenticeships through skills, knowledge and education.”

Acacia Training offers a range of career packages and courses across a number of sectors. Find your perfect course here.