Pitman Training is the UK's leading adult education franchise. With a network of over 80 franchised training centres, they're now supporting more than 10,000 students to improve their careers. With an unparalleled history spanning almost 200 years, Pitman has a lot to be proud of and has had to re-invent itself many times, evolving and innovating to meet the needs of adult learners.
Sir Isaac Pitman invented shorthand in 1837, established the first Pitman school in 1870 and Pitman made its name delivering courses that taught 'the professional and commercial man' how to write Sir Isaac Pitman's shorthand. Shorthand is a phonetic system that allows writers to use symbols to represent the sounds words make. In 1837, when Sir Isaac Pitman first introduced shorthand, there weren't recording devices to refer back to when interviewing people, so this technique was ground-breaking for writers and journalists alike.
Pitman also helped pave the way for women to enter the workplace. By 1914, when the First World War started, Pitman's training centres offered a wider variety of courses - but no longer just to men. To help with the war effort, women were recruited to fill vacancies on the home front and required bookkeeping and typing skills. Pitman helped tens of thousands of women learn new skills over the course of the war and gave them an identity and purpose beyond that of a housewife, leading the way in supporting equality for women in the workplace.
After the First World War, many women attended Pitman Secretarial Colleges, which provided them with a form of empowerment by establishing secure office-based careers such as Typists, Secretaries and Personal Assistants
In recent years, following the move into franchising in 1992, the business has become renowned for providing training to people looking to upskill themselves to work in an office environment, whether that be Microsoft Office, typing skills, administrative and secretarial skills.
Whilst Pitman Training is very proud to own this long and rich heritage, the business has moved on significantly to stay relevant. Over the last 3 years Pitman has introduced an array of modern courses and diplomas to help people keep up in this ever-changing world and workplace. These latest training programs have been designed to enable people wanting to pursue a career in a digital or technological field. Here's a snapshot of the programs:
Advanced IT Support Technician Diploma
The Advanced IT Support Technician Diploma is intended for anyone already in an IT role who has a responsibility for network maintenance and management.
Web Developer Diploma
In the Web Developer diploma, students learn the coding languages required to be a front-end web developer and create dynamic websites. The programme covers the primary and in-demand web development programming languages: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Advanced Software & Web Developer Diploma
In the Advanced Software and Web Developer Diploma, students learn the coding languages that every web developer needs to know: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Students then broaden their skill set with a strong foundation in SQL, C#, and Microsoft's .NET Framework that will lead to even more opportunities in the world of software development.
Digital Marketing Diploma
This diploma will help you learn more about some of the key specialisms of digital marketing. Whether you want to work as a PPC Manager, Digital Marketing Specialist, SEO Strategist or simply want to know more about the different ways and methods to market your own business.
Furthermore, Pitman are now gearing up to release a brand new Data Analyst Diploma, shortly followed by a Cloud Engineer Diploma in the coming months. These are 2 career paths that are predicted to be in high demand now and well into the future.
These IT/Digital/Technological Programmes form the base for the next generation of Pitman students to develop the job ready skills that are required in the fast changing workplace. Pitman have invested time, money, resource and expertise to continue to deliver training in the 21st Century.
Become part of our solution, become a franchisee by visiting www.pitman-franchising.com and talking to us about the great opportunities that our brand offers.
Paul Lewis, Managing Director of Pitman Training, said, "Pitman currently has 80 locations in the UK and Northern Ireland but we expect to increase this to 100 in the next five years. We plan to do this through sustainable multi-unit ownership, which offers you more freedom as well as also translating into higher profits and our next generation programmes fit perfectly with our vision for the future"