Emma Hrrison and A4e the beginning
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Posted On :
Sep-03-2010
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Article Word Count :
578
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We started A4e in order to provide the redundant workers with the training they needed to find work in other industries. And – the flip side of the coin – we were able to supply companies with newly trained and enthusiastic workers.
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We started A4e in order to provide the redundant workers with the training they needed to find work in other industries. And – the flip side of the coin – we were able to supply companies with newly trained and enthusiastic workers.
From our South Yorkshire beginnings, we’ve expanded quite a bit. And we don’t just mean to North Yorkshire. Our growth has been on a global scale. We’re now improving lives all over the world. As far away as Australia, in fact. “Doing well by doing good,” as our Chairman, Emma Harrison puts it.
We’re much bigger than we once were, but our concerns are the same as ever. We still want to bring about social change. To help the disadvantaged. And to put equal opportunities into practice in away that others only pay lip service to.
About Emma Harrison
She’s tenacious, driven, hardworking and one of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs. Yet first and foremost, Emma Harrison believes businesses can and should do good.
As well as her business interests, Emma is a mum of four, works tirelessly for charity and lives in a “posh commune” with 20 of her friends and family. Her story is one of creativity, determination and hard graft.
Growing up
Born in Clacton-on-Sea, Emma grew up in Nigeria and Sheffield, her family moving where their father’s training company took them. Money was tight and her mother, unhappy with family life, would regularly leave home.
Emma confesses to being a naughty child but also showed her entrepreneurial skills at school from an early age, running an illegal tuck-shop at the age of 9, raising money for charities through bring-and-buy sales and auctions at 12, and becoming a school governor at 15. Mediocre ‘A’ Level results put paid to a career in medicine but, through persistence and going out and knocking on doors, Emma secured an engineering degree place at Bradford University as well as four years’ sponsorship by British Steel where she worked throughout her course.
Emma Harrison and A4e
After graduating, Emma’s life took another twist and when she was 23, her father left England for Germany, leaving Emma in charge of the training company. At the height of the decline of the steel industry in Sheffield, Emma pioneered training solutions for out of work steel workers and in 1991 founded Action for Employment (later to become A4e) in order to provide them with new opportunities and improve their lives.
Emma went to work marketing the company and by the end of her first year, she’d increased turnover from £100,000 to £1 million. Today, A4e manages £300m of government training contracts, operates in 11 countries, employs over 3,300 people and has a turnover of close to £200m.
A4e is now the prime contractor to the UK government of services such as Flexible New Deal, Legal Aid Helpline, Social Care, Education for Offenders, Business Enterprise and Youth Vocational centres. Yet Emma still manages the business as an organisation whose first priority is to help others. Her company motto “Doing well by doing good” explains the A4e approach to improving people’s lives by helping them develop new skills. Under Emma’s stewardship A4e has now diversified into many markets, with the sole aim of improving people’s lives. Emma still, to this day, mentors staff individually, believes passionately in what A4e does and provides them with the inspiration to embody the company’s ethos.
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Article Source :
http://www.articleseen.com/Article_Emma Hrrison and A4e the beginning_31566.aspx
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Author Resource :
Emma Harrison CBE is an entrepreneur and very successful business woman and has helped thousands of people through her company, A4e.
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Keywords :
Emma Harrison a4e, Emma Harrison, Emma Harrison UK, Emma Harrison CBE, A4e,
Category :
Business
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Business
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