Yorkshire Science

Yorkshire Science sponsors Innovation through Yorkshire Business Insider's Top 100 Growth Awards

Yorkshire Science sponsored the Innovation Category of the Yorkshire Business Insider magazine's Growth 100 Awards. The innovative capacity of companies was debated at some length by the judges. Two companies stood out in our list; first the Hesley Group, which has managed to make a successful business out of the unlikely scenario of providing education for children with special needs. But the judges felt that Sheffield-based A4e had shown true innovation by applying new business thinking to the world of training, something that was often assumed to be public sector territory only.

Yorkshire Science Council member Barry Dodd had the task, along with the other judges, of deciding upon winners from a very impressive batch of entries. He said:

As a panel we were very impressed by the quality and high standard of entries. For Yorkshire Science a key message is innovation and I was pleased to see that, regardless of sector, innovation was a common thread running through all of the category winners.

"Both shortlisted companies had applied innovative techniques to their businesses, through products, performance and processes, often a combination of all three. We chose Action for Employment (A4e) as the Innovation category winner, because the company continually chooses to push out the boundaries and look into new techniques and new territories. We felt that it was an excellent example of the principles of innovation applied as best practice and I'm pleased we were able to recognise its achievements."

A4e has recently taken on a large tranche of business in Israel. Receiving the award, A4e's group chief executive Mark Lovell said: "A4e's aim is to help improve people's lives and create positive social change. Delivering services to help give people the skills to improve their life chances and social mobility is fundamental to improving social and business communities. Over the past 20 years we have worked hard to achieve this goal and it is an honour to be recognised for this by our peers across the county."

"We have achieved success where traditional forms of public interventions have failed. The work we do helps to benefit both the local community and the local economy and by working with a range of partners including Local Government and private companies such as HBOS we can create a positive social change."

Based in Sheffield, A4e is an outsourcing organisation delivering training and employment services to the public and private sectors. It has grown to become one of the largest providers of employment support to the unemployed and delivers over 200 different qualifications from entry level basic skills to higher level management and development training.