History

The business started in 1998 when Tony Willson was acting as Investors in People Adviser to a Client who, as a result of introducing appraisals, needed to outsource their training and development function, as they didn't have one and didn't want one.

He pursuaded his wife, Lindsey who was then a trainer for a travel agents' software product, to take on the contract with Countryside Properties plc, to act as their Training Co-Ordinator.  She developed a Microsoft Access database to handle bookings, produce paperwork, reports and basically automated what are usually time-consuming processes. As Countryside grew in numbers and the service became more complex, Lindsey took on a part-time assistant and moved from her home office, to a room in the serviced offices of a builders.  However, it was soon realised that we could duplicate what she was doing, for other construction companies.

On 1st June 2000, Partners for Training Ltd commenced with Lindsey and Tony joining forces.  Tony had worked with Dale Carnegie Training for 10 years and had been an Instructor on various programmes including Sales, Customer Service, Public Speaking etc and thought that he would combine a training business with the outsourced training management one.

The services that we offered were to manage the training for companies on a'vendor neutral' basis i.e. we were paid a fee and we bought training at the best possible rates, passing on savings to the Client.  We also dealt with CITB Grants claims which, in 2002 became more complex but dovetailed into our systems perfectly.

New contracts came along over the first few years - the first being the builders who were our landlords!  We moved into larger offices in the same building and Tony's idea of having a training side receded as he became more involved with the running of the business whilst Lindsey was responsible for all operational matters.

In 2002 we were first accredited to Investors in People.

In 2004, we decided that Partners for Training was a misleading name for what we did, as people thought that we were a training company.  We got in some designers and they came up with the name 'Helmsman' - because we guide people from here to there, steer them in the right direction etc. So we changed the name and it was successful because no-one knew what on earth Helmsman did - so had to read about us!

The company grew and in early 2005, the supplier who we were using for most of the health and safety training that our Clients needed, decided to drop a lot of construction courses.  The manager who was running that company wanted to leave and approached Helmsman with a proposition for them to start her up in their own Health & Safety training company.  Helmsman Safety Services started business in April 2005 and we received our Health & Safety Executive Approval for First Aid courses, later that year.

In June 2006 we moved to larger offices around the corner and the company won the Growing Business and Health & Safety Services won New Business in the Colchester & District business awards .  We also had the honour of starting to work with the Royal Household and have been delivering their First Aid and other health and safety courses, ever since.

The main trainer that we used, Alex Eccles, joined us full time in early 2007 and he is still Head of Training but has since been put through a NEBOSH Certificate, the qualification that any health and safety professional should have, and so he now also handles our advisory service.

Also in 2007 We were also delighted at winning the Professional Services category of the 'Best Places to Work in Construction' awards - something that was totally decided upon by a staff survey. 

In 2009, we attained ISO9001:2008 at our first attempt and also won Essex Small Business of the Year. Our 'Safe & Sure' contract to watch over organisations' health and safety requirements was launched in later that year.