Who we are

We’re passionate about the business of training and development here at ACM. In fact we don't think it’s an exaggeration to say that learning can make the world a better place. We've trained more than 12,500 individual and 2,000 plus corporate clients over the past 28 years. And while we love every single one, we’re particularly proud of our clients in the not-for-profit sectors like health, local government, higher education and charity. They're demanding customers with a keen sense of what constitues good value for money which is why all of our workshops are priced accordingly. So why not join the list and make this a year for personal and professional improvement?

What we do

We run training courses for individuals and organisations to help them communicate better, work better and perform better. Open and in-house workshops live from our purpose-built online traning studio or delivered face-to-face if that's your thing.

Our story

ACM Training was founded in 1995 in the corner of a room with two chairs, a telephone line and computer with a 500Mb hard drive and dial up access that played a weird kind of tune while it made a connection to the new-fangled Internet.

The founding directors were Richard Uridge, who brought to the company his experience as a journalist and broadcaster, and his partner, Sandy Keating, newly-arrived from her native Australia and ready, like her beloved cricket team, to knock the Poms into shape, not with a bat or ball but with four degrees (yes four) in education and, in particular, adult vocational education. Both are still with the company today.

Their first-ever client was a senior policeman Richard had just interviewed for the BBC. The officer made a hash of the interview and asked Richard if he knew anybody who could help. Ever the freelance, our man sensed an opportunity and said yes. The rest, as they say, is history.

From that humble start ACM Training now has more than 2,500 corporate clients including all the emergency services, local councils, government departments, the NHS, universities and charities. It's trained more than 12,500 individual customers. And long-ago moved into purpose-built offices not far from the beautiful market town of Ludlow in south Shropshire.

Our mission statement

Everyone needs a mission statement these days hey? Here's ours: training and development to help make the world (of work) a better place. Cheesy but true!

Our team

Sandy Keating

Sandy (that's her in the middle with the blond hair and the big smile) has been with ACM from the start and leads our dealing with difficult people and organisational development workshops. A passionate trainer, her background is in vocational education and she taught adult learners back in her native Australia. Before that she worked in retail management. Outside work she's equally passionate about traveling and food (often combining the two!) and loves to walk.

Sandy Keating BAdVT; BEd; MEdTD; DipEd

Richard Uridge

Richard leads our media, presentation and communication workshops. His background is as a journalist and broadcaster and his work for the BBC and other networks has taken him all over the world. Read his work blog here.

As a keen cyclist, he's into another sort of training too. You can read his bike blog here although be warned, it also combines his love of poetry and his interest in dementia care.