Alison is a UK national with almost 30 years of corporate and training experience across a wide spectrum of business sectors. These include Corporate, Charitable, Private, Academic, and the UK National Health Service (NHS).
Alison has been described as “an energetic and highly enthusiastic Trainer who believes in delivering the very best, each time”. Her experience of training audiences ranges from the public to Top FTSE 100 Directors, Academic leaders as well as Politicians. These reflect the strong versatility and adaptability she can apply to delivering training to a range of specialist audiences. Drawing upon her first-hand experience of soft skills training in healthcare, government, and academic settings, allows her to quickly understand how a variety of industries function at their core. Her time as a Director of her own business for many years, means she is also able to draw upon life experiences to illustrate how the road to leadership takes many turns on the journey to success.
In 1993, Alison was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of a national patient organization, a role she held until 2008. At that time, she was the youngest CEO in England. In this position, she was responsible for its day-to-day management, business development and growth, as well as developing a national training strategy. She still fondly recalls her first training session, which was delivered to student nurses at London’s world-famous Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital. She enjoyed this experience so much, that delivering and devising training continued to become an integral part of her role. She later moved on to deliver media training, based on her own experience of television, radio, and print media.
In 2008, seeking a new challenge, Alison became Director of her own Healthcare Training Company, delivering training and facilitation to a range of NHS and Private Healthcare Organizations throughout the UK. She subsequently devised highly effective, tailored training courses to address clearly identified gaps in the training of medical staff.
After three years of managing her own company, in 2011, she was approached to join the National Institute of Health Research, based at Oxford University. In this role, she was responsible for devising and delivering a range of soft skills training to medical students, academic and medical researchers, and members of the public.
In 2014, Alison left Oxford University to return to training consultancy services for a UK medical multinational information provider, helping them to develop a new, highly successful and inclusive ‘patient focused service’.
Continuing her passion for training, in 2016, Alison moved to Abu Dhabi, UAE, to take up a role as Senior Management Associate with Spearhead Training. Joining the team was an exciting opportunity for Alison to deliver Spearhead’s own brand of world-class training in the UAE, and throughout the Middle East region.
In 2018, she returned to the UK, but has continued to train under the Spearhead brand, while undertaking an Open University BSc in Social Psychology. Her adaptability and flexible approach has ensured a seamless transition from face-to-face training, to running a range of Virtual Instructor-Led Trainings, for Spearhead.
Alison’s key areas of expertise include:
Management & Leadership
- Developing Management Skills (City & Guilds ILM Recognised)
- Supervisory Management Skills (City & Guilds ILM Recognised)
- Leading High Performance Teams For Stronger Business Performance (City & Guilds ILM Recognised)
- Coaching For Optimum Performance (City & Guilds ILM Recognised)
Business Skills
- Creativity & Innovation Workshop
- Strategic Thinking & Planning
- Event Management (City & Guilds ILM Recognised)
- Creative Problem Solving & Decision-Making (City & Guilds ILM Recognised)
- Planning & Organizing Skills – Achieving Your Highest Priorities
HR Management & Training
- Competency-Based Interviewing Skills – For Recruitment & Selection
- Train The Trainer – Group Training Techniques (City & Guilds ILM Recognised)
Customer Service
- Excellence In Customer Service
- Customer Care & Telephone Skills
- Etiquette For Excellent Telephone Skills
- Customer Relationship Management
- Developing A ‘World-Class Customer Service’ – As A Competitive Strategy
Administrative Skills
- Office Management & Administration (City & Guilds ILM Recognised)
- Professional Secretarial & Administrative Skills
- The Perfect PA – For PAs & Executive Secretaries
Sales & Marketing
- Negotiation Skills – Learn How To Negotiate Like A Professional!
- Social Media Marketing For Business
Personal Development
- Presentation Skills – Making A Powerful Impact On Any Audience (City & Guilds ILM Recognised)
- Advanced Presentation Skills
- Self & Time Management
- Stress & Anger Management In The Workplace
- Developing Effective Interpersonal & Communication Skills (City & Guilds ILM Recognised)
- Assertiveness Skills (& Dealing With Difficult Situations)
- Understanding Emotional Intelligence (City & Guilds ILM Recognised)
Business Writing Courses
- Professional Business Writing Skills (City & Guilds ILM Recognised)
- Advanced Business Writing Skills (City & Guilds ILM Recognised)
Additional Courses (In-Company Only)
- Improving Patient Consultations
- Team Building
