Timeline - Our History
We are very proud of our history – join in our future…
- 1837 - Isaac Pitman perfects the shorthand system.
- 1839 - The first Phonetic Institute is opened in Nelson Place, Bath.
- 1870 - The number of Phonetic Institutes continues to grow providing schools where students qualify as ‘shorthand writers to professional and commercial men’
- 1889 - Pitman’s Metropolitan School opens in Southampton Row, accommodating 1,500 students and 800 staff.
- 1894 - Sir Isaac Pitman is knighted by Queen Victoria on 18 July.
- 1903 - Winston Churchill MP describes Pitman as: “Without equal in the whole world, equipped as it is with every improvement, which thought and science can suggest, for the training of students in commercial life”.
- 1912 - Pitman now training 10,000 students a year.
- 1914 - With the advent of World War 1, women are recruited to fill much needed vacancies on the home front. Pitman opens extra branches to cope with the demand. Typing and bookkeeping skills are especially popular.
- 1939 - War breaks out again and once more women learn new skills from Pitman to take over the jobs of the men who are fighting.
- 1955 - Pitman Training becomes the largest training network in the UK.
- 1992 - Franchise operation established with the opening of four new Pitman Training Centres. Full British Franchise Association (BFA) membership awarded.
- 1994 - The first Irish Pitman Training Centre opens in Dublin, and Pitman Training achieves 50 centres.
- 2001 - Pitman Training Group awarded the Highly Commended prize in the BFA, Franchisor of the Year Awards.
- 2002 - The Gulf Master Franchise Agreement signed, covering Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Iran, Oman, UAE and Qatar, to open 7 Pitman Training Centres across the Gulf States. The Gulf partners add Iraq in 2004.
- 2003 - Pitman Training Centre Kuwait opens and Pitman Training is still the largest independent training network in the UK.
- 2005 - A record number of Pitman Training Centres open.
- 2006 - Pitman Training Centre London - EC2 wins the prestigious Learning Centre of the Year Award. Pitman Training Centre Mauritius opens.
- 2007 - Pitman Training Bishop’s Stortford short-listed for the BFA Franchise partner of the Year awards.
- 2008 - Pitman Training tops the 100 mark for centres worldwide - see our Time Traveller video.
- 2009 - Pitman Training launches new worldwide Management Information System for all centres.
- 2011 - Pitman Training launches new Business English course in association with Cambridge University.