WYCC's Business Mentoring Associates can help SMEs respond positively to the current climate. Working with a WYCC Mentor will build your employees’ skills to cope with the volatile and complex challenges they currently face. Get in touch about mentoring if you would like to develop your or an employee’s skills in one or a mixture of the following skills:
Browse the choice of Business Mentoring Associates below and contact your chosen Mentor via the contact button. Mentors will respond to enquires within three working days.
Graham Pitchforth (ACIM) (MSET) is a researching practitioner working in further education and is extremely keen on continuous professional development, research and scholarly activity. He strongly believes in lifelong learning for all and enjoys sharing good practice with others, Graham has been an Advanced Teaching and Learning Coach as well as a business mentor.
Graham is Assistant Head of Higher Skills at Calderdale College. He is also a key member of Rise, Calderdale College’s service for employers, providing a range of bespoke workforce development support to businesses across the Leeds City Region.
An experienced lecturer in secondary, further and higher education settings, Graham has also held roles within retail and the third sector. His skills and experience include leadership and staff development, quality assurance, marketing, promotion, business continuity, online learning and digital strategy, stakeholder engagement and community development, innovative thinking and strategic planning.
Graham holds professional membership with The Society for Education and Training (SET) and The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) Associate Member (ACIM).
Simon has 30 years of sales and marketing experience and helps numerous companies with his expertise throughout Yorkshire.
Based upon measurable performance and a real return on investment from profitable growth Simon is confident that he can work together with any organisation from start-ups to more mature companies to develop a dynamic marketing approach that will deliver success for their business.
As well as working to develop the sales and marketing strategy, Simon has the commercial acumen to combine entrepreneurial drive with business management skills to drive gains in revenue, and profit performance and to inspire teams and communicate a clear and strategic marketing vision.
Andrew has amassed a wealth of knowledge from his years in business and academia, he is a skilled business coach and experienced trainer. Though able to engage and support all types of business leader and issues, he has a particular specialism in advancing sales and marketing skills. He has worked with a range of business clients helping to support them to start, grow and be more successful in business. Key to all his client work is helping them to set out a clear plan for action alongside some form of accountability measures.
Andrew is committed to lifelong learning and consequently reads a book every week. He is a qualified NLP practitioner, holds a Level 5 Business Coaching and Mentoring Diploma; and he is a member of both the chartered College of Teaching and the Association of Coaching.
Bernard is experienced at establishing and leading business. In a career that has included senior roles in the private sector, academia, and charities he has amassed a wealth of knowledge to share. His qualifications include a MSc in Business Management, Training and Development NVQ and facilitation of group work. He has supported numerous new business leaders through training, mentoring, and coaching across the UK.
Bernard’s strengths lie in being able to listen intently, ask key questions and test a client’s presumptions. He can deep-dive into the detail of process management and find efficiencies, as well as being comfortable examining line management challenges and sharing techniques to best inspire colleagues. This versatility brings clarity to what can feel like complex situations and supports the client to set clear plans that they can measure. During coaching Bernard draws upon a wide range of tools and templates to create a bespoke plan for each client’s situation.
Martin is the owner of multi-award-winning learning and development business, Lattitude7. He is a Chartered Engineer who holds a PhD from Leeds University. Following a career in automotive engineering leadership, he became group coach for an international company embracing talent management and organisational development. Martin was responsible for personal development and training for senior leaders from various countries. He also arranges and delivers on international team building seminars.
Martin has been active in management, leadership, presentations and ethics training for many years and is an NLP Practitioner, Appreciative Inquiry Practitioner and psychometric profiler. Martin has created and delivered numerous mentoring skills programmes and mentoring interventions. He acquired a business coaching certificate from the Coaching Academy and a business coaching diploma from the Academy of Professional Coaching. Martin is licenced to deliver accredited training and has a qualification in Cultural Awareness and international interaction.
He was an Ethics and Integrity advisor for a Product Development Community in Europe and MEA. A qualified teacher, Martin has a reputation as a highly effective trainer and, through his international experience and cultural awareness, offers a range of learning experiences to support people, teams and businesses.
He has been helping businesses with work-related aspects for many years and is also a member of the Enterprise Adviser Network. In his spare time, Martin is a Marathon runner and IRONMAN Triathlete so he knows a thing or two about setting goals and achieving results.
Michelle is a highly professional individual with a passion and talent for developing others. She believes that what is important in life is making a difference to people and does this through honesty and integrity along with a sense of fun. She is an award-winning trainer, natural facilitator and highly successful coach and mentor with over 20 years’ experience working with a wide range of businesses. Michelle has extensive expertise in leadership, mentoring and coaching with both individuals and teams.
Michelle currently mentors a number of SME business owners, leaders, managers and HR Professionals on various aspects of personal development from leading and managing people and teams, confidence, assertiveness, time management, managing conflict and team dynamics, relationship management, stress and wellbeing. If you would value support around some of the challenges experienced over the last few months or are concerned or anxious about the coming few months, some mentoring sessions might be just what you need to get you back on track.
Before founding Pro-Development, she was responsible for managing, mentoring and coaching the performance of senior managers in Aviva (UK) Life, as well as providing leadership to a team of professional development consultants. Michelle holds The Oxford School of Coaching and Mentoring (OCM) qualification.
Suzanne Courtney is highly skilled with a range of capabilities including learning and development, talent management and project management. She is an extremely outcome-focused individual who has people at the heart of what she does; Suzanne enjoys problem solving and has the ability to look holistically at issues and identify solutions. She is also an experienced facilitator, trainer and mentor and coach.
Suzanne has over 20 years’ experience in both the public and private sectors, including Banking, Insurance, Local Government and Higher Education. Suzanne brings her breadth of experience and knowledge to SMEs. Suzanne holds an MSc in Human Resource Management, The Oxford School of Coaching and Mentoring (OCM) and a Graduate of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).