From Dubai And The Uae To The Uk

A jet-setting businessman who spent years working in Dubai, arranging some of the worlds' biggest organisations training courses, has his eyes set on the UK for his latest venture

Ian Murray, from the North East has worked in Dubai and the UAE for the last nine years and has recently decided that it is time to take root on home turf again bringing with him the very same training model to companies in the UK that has given them such huge success in the Middle East.

Managing Director of Protraining UK, Ian told Jackie Marston why he made the bold decision to come home and train the businesses of the UK to the standards that they do in the middle east:

“Apart from the fact that I miss the north east hugely, whilst I worked away, one of the things that I noticed is that the level of learning abroad is of a really high standard and I personally love delivering it, so I wanted to see if it would get the same positive response to the businesses in the UK.”

What is the best part about working at Pro Training?

“The variety of programmes that we offer and the professionalism of the team – it’s good to be surrounded by fun, informed and dedicated people who believe in what they do, try to be better each day and produce results.

“The company is 15 years in operation now, our courses are bespoke and more importantly, fun – basically, we know what we are doing to make the information we’re giving, stick in the minds of the learners!”

Although Ian’s main job in the UK is to enlist businesses; SME, B2B and Blue-Chip companies to the courses that they offer, it’s with the backing of such huge organisations that they work for in the Middle East that will ensure that they are taken seriously in the training market in the UK.

Their corporate brochure boasts a section named The Company We Keep and to say their list of clients is impressive would be a huge understatement!

With industry giants such as Nestle, Emirates, CHAHLOUB Group and Gulf Bank, to name a few, it’s easy to see why Protraining are realised as industry leaders in the Middle East.

In a nutshell, they deliver corporate training to businesses that want to see their individuals, teams and businesses succeed. There is no ‘one-cap-fitsall’ approach here though, as Ian and his team tailor each and every programme to suit the businesses and individuals’ needs and make sure that the training they offer is current, up to date and fun.

Ian, from Newcastle upon Tyne told me why they are successful in this area of expertise, when many company’s have failed in the past: “We do this through experiential learning and adding engagement as our number one philosophy, simple as that!”

Ian’s personal career is something that he feels has helped him achieve such success. Pretraining in a previous life, he worked for Al Shaheen – A Military Training company based in Abu Dhabi, where he headed up their Quality Assurance Division.

Now we all know that trying to get our staff on training courses in the first place is a challenge. Engaging them and holding their interest is challenge number two whilst ensuring that the knowledge is retained in their grey matter is probably the hardest challenge of them all. However, by combining tried and tested methods in a fun environment, with great interaction and course facilitators that are able to keep the interest of their audience, these are just some of the reasons that the companies in the Middle East rely on the services of Protraining.

With their offices based in Newcastle it is Protraining UK’s intention to start with the north east business and spread their wings nationally, once the region has established, which Ian predicts will take the best part of 2018.

Asked what he will bring to the training table of the businesses in the UK, Ian concluded: “I would say that we take the pressure and worry away from your training needs – we believe that customer service is upmost and as winners of the SME Customer Service Award, our track record is proven.

“We feel that you can trust us, in that whatever training we deliver it will produce the desired results and energise and up-skill the participants.”