2960 Educators providing Awareness courses delivered On Demand

study plex

Birmingham

Study Plex is a company focused on providing a range of learning and development opportunities, to entertain and educate our learner base through the use of modern learning technology.

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the diaspora community projects (diaspora)

London

We are pleased to announce that ,The Diaspora Community Projects (Diaspora) is now approved by VTCT Awarding body to deliver Beauty courses. Also proudly announce that we are also approved for Barista Training and Hospitality and Catering Diploma Courses We a BME led community organisation that has been at the forefront of the economic development, training and career advancement of people from local communities with particular focus on employment support for the marginalised communities. Aim to benefit adults and children and their families every year, through live welfare projects on education, healthcare, livelihood and women empowerment, aim to driven in over many remote villages and slums across the world. Education is both the means as well as the end to a better life: the means because it empowers an individual to earn his/her livelihood and the end because it increases one's awareness on a range of issues – from healthcare to appropriate social behaviour to understanding one's rights – and in the process help him/her evolve as a better citizen. We are accredited training providers for a number of job-related skills training programmes including NVQs and apprenticeships. They include Health and Social Care, Business & Administration, Security (SIA) As part of our employment support scheme, we work in partnership with various national and local organisations to offer training and employment opportunities to the local community. This service comes with our bespoke quality one-2-one career advice and support to give the long-term unemployed an opportunity to kick-start their career. Currently, we have on offer a number of training and employment support courses which include Free NVQ levels 2&3 in Health and Social care, Business & Administration, Leadership & Management and Customer Service. On employment opportunities, we are now delivering Security, Cleaning and Health Care recruitment services. Through our very successful training programmes which include work placements, we can guarantee highly trained and motivated staff in cleaning, healthcare Assistants/Support Workers and Security Officers under our new win-win work programme. Under this programme, established businesses get our highly trained and vetted staff from ourselves to work for them. with minimal cost for the labour as well as offering an opportunity to improve living standards of local people. In addition, working with us helps your businesses in contributing to highly valued social responsibility strategies embraced by most national and international organisations. Since 2005, DCP has developed itself as a social enterprise ie engaging in trading activities to support most of its community work. Working as a social enterprise DCP has managed to win confidence within the public and private sector alike and with this we have seen sales increase steadily in the past few years despite the economic down turn that has made many charitable organisations and businesses close. Because of our unique market target as well as our excellence in quality service, many private and public organisations have been able to work with us as we provide a vital link to working with the most vulnerable and marginalised members of the society. At DCP we have our fingers on the pulse of our communities, ready to help transform how they learn, how they find jobs and how they do them, how they access public services and how they develop creativity to make the most of time and effectively contribute to the economy in the UK an abroad. We also specialise in offering a wide range of development and support services to individuals (employed and unemployed) and businesses, (consultancy) both in the private and voluntary sectors. Due to the nature of our business, we work with a team of highly skilled and experienced people –paid and on voluntary basis to provide the best service you can expect in the third sector. We have a clear commitment to diversity and experience achieving a balanced social mix for the youth and adults and partnership with key stakeholders like the Department of Work & Pension (DWP) , Job centre Plus, local colleges and schools. When it comes to recruiting quality staff and trainees, our success is partly due to our approach to embedding IAG and skills development throughout our programmes combined with 1-2-1 personal support and continuing counselling, mentoring, coaching and inspiration. Together with our associated partners in the UK, DCP is continually testing and pioneering new ideas in different development spheres such as training/assessment, regeneratio

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alice leahy

Southampton

About Alice Leahy Trust TRUST was founded in 1975, and this year we are 35 years working people who are homeless in Dublin. TRUST is a non-political, non-denominational voluntary body set up in 1975 as a private charitable trust (Charity No.CHY7014) to provide medical and related services for people who are homeless. We work in premises provided at a nominal rent by the Iveagh Trust. Between 30 and 40 men and women call each morning, the majority of whom are sleeping out (age 18 to 85). We see new people daily and often have people calling who were housed – settled- and become homeless again. Washing facilities are available and each month we give out in excess of 500 outfits of clothing to people who are homeless as part of our total health service. Members of the public, Rotary and church groups donate the clothes and shoes. Developing a Sense of Self-Worth We encourage and help people who come to us to avail of statutory services and to obtain their entitlements; to place a value on themselves; to develop a sense of self esteem and avoid dependence on private charity. “When we first entered TRUST on the Monday at the beginning of the week Alice asked us if we could ever see ourselves homeless and straight away we answered “No”. But now after all we’ve experienced and seen I now realise there is only a very, very fine line between having a home and being homeless. Homelessness is not just being houseless -it’s about not feeling wanted or belonging somewhere. Society has an awful opinion of homeless people as drunks, down and outs -whereas they are only human beings like the rest of us who just couldn’t keep up in the rat race. We met some very well spoken people -teachers who couldn’t get jobs, doctors who couldn’t “make it”. They become so institutionalised that they will not move out of a hostel. Before, I would have been anxious or afraid to approach a homeless person on the street but now I know that they would be happy to have someone to talk to. I also never realised all the organisations and people who devote and have spent most of their life working with the homeless” Extract from diary of student nurse on placement. Helping to Create a Society where Everyone is Important We see a major part of our work is in the field of advocacy or promoting more awareness of the outsiders amongst us, and the creation of this web site and our Transition Year Project and Essay Competition grew directly out of that commitment. We are a relatively small agency but through our work we have gained valuable insights and using our experience we try in different ways to bring that into the wider community and seek to effect change. For example, we have been intensely involved in prison and psychiatric work since the beginning of Trust. In 1998, Trust Director Alice Leahy was invited to join the National Crime Forum. Trust is on the Consultative Board of the Homeless Initiative and is involved in on-going training of specialist groups. We make submissions in response to requests from government agencies and are involved in relevant research on the issues relating to homelessness. Trust feels that some agencies involved with people who are homeless may not respect everybody’s right to the confidential use and storage of information. Some people who are homeless feel pressurised to take part in research into homelessness in case they may lose their hostel bed or their entitlements. Trust only participates in research when we believe the research design is sound, ethical and likely to provide useful information. “I was most impressed by your service. The bright coloured walls and wooden floors were warm and welcoming, and mirrored the bright cheerful staff who welcomed me… I was particularly impressed by the pictures on the wall, which captured the sensitive nature of the people who use your service and speaks of a place where everyone is accepted just as they are. Those pictures tell me that every life is a work of art. I felt I was in a solid, comfortable place and ordinary enough to feel at home.” Letter from Dr. Kieran McKeown,Social & Economic Research Consultant after a visit to TRUST

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british hang gliding and paragliding association

Meridian Business Park

Welcome to the British Hang Gliding & Paragliding Association (BHPA) website. From its head office in Leicester the BHPA supports a country-wide network of recreational clubs and registered schools, and provides the infrastructure within which hang gliding and paragliding in the United Kingdom (UK) thrive. Hang Glider (Courtesy Mike Scholes) The BHPA oversees pilot and instructor training standards, and provides technical support such as airworthiness standards, and coaching courses for qualified hang gliding and paragliding pilots. Initial hang gliding or paragliding training must be undertaken at a BHPA registered school. Most schools offer training in a wide range of flying disciplines, so it's important to understand the differences between the disciplines before choosing a school. The Learn to Fly section of this web site explains the relative merits of each discipline, the types of flying involved, and provides an insight into the training methods used. As you near the end of your initial training with one of our registered schools, it's important to start looking for suitable recreational club to join. Obtaining your Club Pilot rating marks the end of your formal instruction and qualifies you to leave the school and fly within a BHPA recreational club. The BHPA supports a network of UK hang gliding and paragliding recreational clubs who are able to offer the supportive flying and social environment vital to the safe development of your flying skills, as you join other recreational flyers on the hill, and continue your progression through the BHPA Pilot Rating Scheme (PRS). As your accumulated airtime increases and your flying skills improve, you will probably start to think about your long term goals and aspirations, and working towards your Pilot Rating, the next rung on the PRS ladder. Club coaches can offer advice and support with the flying tasks that need to be completed, and the theory exam you will need to sit. An online BHPA Mock Pilot Rating Exam is also available. This will allow you to test your current knowledge and help you to understand the subject areas you will need to revise before sitting the real exam. When you first leave your school and join a club, you may choose to spend your first few hours' flying with no specific aim other than to safely accumulate airtime. However, it is well known that pilots make safer more efficient progress when they are given particular tasks to undertake. With that in mind, a panel of experienced BHPA coaches have devised a new pathway to learning, the BHPA Pilot Development Structure. This offers an alternative to the more formal Pilot Rating System, and for newly qualified pilots aims to: encourage interaction between new pilots, their club and its coaches provide a structured way to progress, acquire knowledge and build skills through attainable goals reduce flying related incidents and promote safe flying Paraglider (Courtesy Derek Frith) The BHPA also has a disability initiative called Flyability. This reports directly to the BHPA's Executive Council on disability related matters within the sport. Flyability doesn't simply take people with disabilities flying, it strives to motivate people with disabilities to become involved in the sport of hang gliding and paragliding and to train as pilots. Much of Flyability's work in the sport, focuses around changing peoples perception of disability and their attitudes toward people with disabilities. Disability awareness, education and advice play key roles in Flyability's aims and objectives, as does the development of specialist equipment, training and flying techniques. The BHPA also publishes Skywings, the only magazine dedicated to free flying in the United Kingdom. This glossy full colour magazine is distributed by mail to around 6,500 BHPA members each month as part of their membership package. Powered hang glider (Courtesy Ian Ferguson) Skywings magazine is also read by countless more hang gliding and paragliding pilots and organisations around the world who have purchased an International Skywings magazine subscription from our on-line shop. Freely available electronic copies of Skywings magazine are also published each month on our Skywings page. These can be viewed online as a flipbook magazine, or downloaded as a pdf document. When viewing the magazine online on a device with a small screen, we recommend that you select the single page option in the menu at the top of each issue.

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advance change ltd

Actus the company was founded by Lucinda Carney, a Chartered Psychologist and former Head of Learning & Development at Siemens and at Pfizer before that. After years of experiencing first-hand the challenges of making Performance Management meaningful, she decided to set up Actus (then Advance Change) offering software that would overcome these challenges, supported by training and organisational development services to provide a comprehensive solution for culture change. Our ethos Since its inception, Actus has been one of the pioneers of performance management software in the UK. Our ultimate goal is to help build a better workplace for people and this goes beyond offering simple appraisal software. We are a small yet mighty (and very friendly!) team based in Redbourn, Hertfordshire and our software and services are highly comprehensive. We believe that to embed lasting, positive change, an organisation needs more than a very simple ‘off the shelf’ software that acts as a ‘tick box’ exercise. They need a system that will evolve with their needs as they grow and one that can be supported with the right training and consultancy options should they require them. What we offer Our Performance, Learning and Talent Suite is aimed at managing all your performance management needs in one place. That means one system and one source of truth. The beauty of Actus is that it eradicates the need for multiple complex HR systems, allowing the system to evolve with your organisations needs. To support you on your journey, we also offer a range of training and consultancy services to embed best practice. These include open and in-house training programmes to support remote/hybrid working and change initiatives, bespoke consultancy services, and a wide-range of free value-add thought leadership resources to support you on your journey. If you are interested in our products and services please get in touch below. Why we are different Our fully-comprehensive software eradicates the need for multiple complex HR systems, by providing customers with one fully-integrated solution that can be configured to their changing needs. We work in partnership with our customers. If you choose Actus you can directly influence the product roadmap. Our Performance Management Software offers more inclusive features than our competitor systems. In this rapidly changing environment, managers need all the help they can get to effectively motivate and manage people wherever they are located. We are passionate about helping people to build a better workplace, which is why we offer aligned training and consultancy services to support positive culture change in any organisation. We are constantly expanding and sharing knowledge with customers and the wider HR community through a wide range of initiatives including our free HR resources, popular monthly webinars and the top-ranking business podcast – The HR Uprising Podcast. Our Software Support Team is based at our UK-based Head Office, so if you have a problem or query you can call or email the helpdesk and receive a timely response from a real person. We have a strong history of integrating with other HR systems and working with clients to develop bespoke functionality. Awards and Accolades We are honoured to have achieved a number of industry awards, accolades and accreditations. They are a clear indication of our commitment to offering the very best to our customers and underpin our vision to be the UK Market Leader for Performance and Talent Management Software and Services. As a business, we are very proud of our achievements and recognition by our peers, customers and industry experts of our successes and the excellence of our products and services. We have chosen to align ourselves with the relevant quality benchmarks to ensure we are always using the best practice approaches to fulfil our promise to deliver the highest quality product and services to our customers. Association with all relevant business and industry bodies helps us to maintain our awareness of the latest thinking in HR, technology, what’s happening in the UK economic landscape and most importantly what issues our customers and prospects are facing that we can help resolve.

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wills & wills mentoring

Wilmslow

BOSTON – MENTOR, the unifying champion of the mentoring movement, announces the expansion of its leadership team with the addition of Tim Wills who joins as the organization’s first Chief Impact Officer on March 7. Tim will drive strategy, coordination, integration, and effectiveness of MENTOR’s teams focused in the areas of training and technical assistance; product design, development and ongoing usage; field research and evaluation; strategic partnerships and systems innovation; and Affiliate partnership, support, effectiveness, sustainability, and expansion. MENTOR CEO David Shapiro says, “We are so fortunate Tim is bringing his decades of experience as an advocate for youth, an innovator, a communicator, and local leader in one of the nation’s oldest and most expansive youth development organizations to our team and the mentoring movement. His personal and professional journey, commitment to supporting others’ development, community building talent, and deep commitment to young people will be such key drivers in our expanded and dynamic efforts to ensure all young people have the relationships they need to strive and thrive.” A native of Ferguson, Mo., Tim holds a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. As a college student, he developed his passion for youth by covering human interest stories as on-air talent for his college television and radio stations which led to a 17-year career in youth development, including at the Boys & Girls Clubs in Chicago, the District of Columbia, and Harford County, Md. In 2016, because of his extensive experience in organizational transformation and increasing club membership, quality improvement, innovative programming and funding, Tim was named the CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of South Alabama. In this role over the last six years, Tim led twelve year-round sites, three summer only programs, a 150-acre campground, and POINTE Academy, a school for detained and adjudicated youth. He’s received several honors and awards, including Boys & Girls Clubs Professional of the Year for his leadership, Mobile Bay 40 Under 40, and Benjamin Mays Excellence in Mentoring Award. Tim is an active member of the Lion’s Club and a member of the board of directors for Voices for Alabama’s Children and Linking All So Others Succeed (LASOS) in Maryland. He’s completed executive-level training in leadership, non-profit management, and advanced philanthropy from Harvard Business School, Stanford University, and Boys & Girls Clubs of America. For 12 years, Tim has been a single foster parent and has fostered 20 children. He also has spent significant time teaching in VolunTourism trips to Haiti. “I’m thrilled to join the MENTOR community to continue the work of elevating the voices of young people across our country,” said Tim. “This new role will further deepen our ability to impact systematic change in order to open doors of opportunity and to close the mentoring gap. I am excited to get started working with our team, board, and stakeholders to continue strengthening and expanding the mentoring movement.” The role of Chief Impact Officer provides a critical new link and integration between so many of MENTOR’s core functions, key stakeholders, valued partners, and Affiliate network which provides local delivery, leadership, and innovations in service to the youth mentoring field nationwide. It will drive expanded impact, efficiency, and responsive servant leadership. Currently, MENTOR operates in collaboration with 24 local Affiliates across the country that galvanize their regional or statewide mentoring movements and provide leadership and structure to support quality mentoring through training, advocacy, and public awareness. Operating under the framework of One MENTOR, MENTOR Affiliates share resources and strategies to strengthen the national mentoring movement. Sadiq Ali, Executive Director of MENTOR Maryland | DC and a member of the CIO interview committee added, “I am greatly excited about Tim joining our One MENTOR family in such a critical role and at such a critical time. His perspective, having been on the frontlines of both local and national youth serving work, will be invaluable as he helps lead us into our next chapter as an Affiliate network, champions for young people, systems change advocates, and a sustainable, impactful organization.” ABOUT MENTOR MENTOR is the unifying champion for expanding the quality and quantity of mentoring relationships across the United States. 30 years ago, MENTOR was created to expand opportunities for young people by building a youth mentoring field and movement. The result: a more than 10-fold increase in young people in structured mentoring relationships. Today, MENTOR is the expert voice representing a movement that meets young people everywhere they are – from schools, to workplaces, and beyond. MENTOR operates in collaboration with 24 local Affiliates across the country. For more information, visit mentoring.org.

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guidepost montessori

Development takes the form of a drive toward an ever-greater independence. It is like an arrow released from the bow, which flies straight, swift and sure. The child’s conquest of independence begins with his first introduction to life. While he is developing, he perfects himself and overcomes every obstacle that he finds in his path.” MARIA MONTESSORI Founder of the Montessori Method of education The Montessori approach Montessori helps your child develop a fundamental, enduring love of learning and the deeply ingrained social, emotional, and academic skills they need to succeed as an adult. Montessori combines highly intentional learning materials, rich social development, and a joyous approach to practiced independence. Our mission Our singular mission at Guidepost is to guide and empower each child as she grows in her independence. In every child lives limitless human potential. For the child to realize that potential is to confidently grow and to joyously learn. It is to create and to love herself while gaining the knowledge to form a unique vision of her singular life. It is the security to live that vision, to dare greatly, to love others. The Montessori approach to human development is based on the belief in the potential of the child, and on the belief that it is only the child herself who can realize this potential. To grow up well is to grow up to be increasingly independent — to be increasingly capable, increasingly confident, increasingly secure, increasingly able to meet one’s own needs, forming one’s own values, and authoring one’s own life. Our job as caretakers is to understand and to love this process as it unfolds for children in our care, and to support the child in blazing her trail. The circumstances of children are as varied as children themselves. The specific needs, the precise resources available, the particular constraints faced by each child and each family are different. As times change, there is a need to keep step and to ensure that the application is timely. But the fundamental need is timeless: to help the child achieve her own development. So, too, is the fundamental method: to provide the child with material, environment, and guidance that is lovingly optimized to support her in that work. The support a child’s caretakers can provide for her burgeoning independence is multifaceted: We can provide materials and inspiration for her to do the work of growing and learning. Every child learns to walk, but not every child learns to walk in a way that feels like an exciting challenge, that redounds upon her confidence. So it is with all of human development and knowledge. The child achieves her own development by engagement and by practice. From grasping an object for the first time, to eating independently, to toileting, to putting her world to words—to the whole world of knowledge, of nature and quantity and life and culture—the effort that children put in can be magnified by thoughtful learning materials and guidance. We can carefully support a child’s environment, creating a wonderful world for her in which to grow up. Children are constantly interacting with and absorbing experiences from their environment. One of the best things we can do for a child is to set up a space where she can be maximally independent and efficacious, a space that is to her comprehensible and enticing, a space that is aesthetically and pedagogically rich. Whether it’s at school or at home, the principles are the same: a world that is accessible, orderly, and enticing is a world that is supportive of a child’s growth. We can prepare ourselves as caretakers of the child. Raising children is as demanding as it is rewarding. It requires that we spend ourselves in understanding and love, that we thoughtfully navigate the stages of a unique child’s development, and that have the self-awareness to manage our own lives, motivation, and energy as we do so. It is tremendously beneficial to both the child and her caretakers to elevate a teaching and parenting philosophy to consciousness, to take an integrated approach to the infinite texture of a child’s growth toward independence. Finally, we can connect with others, other parents, other teachers, other developmentalists and pedagogues, each of whom adds their own experience and wisdom to our accumulated knowledge about child development. Montessori is not just a philosophy of human development. It is also an applied pedagogy, one with over a century of validation, refinement, and grassroots international growth. Guidepost, and each member of our community, benefits tremendously by participating in that movement and history.

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creative arts mentoring

London

Artist Mentor enables contemporary artists and creative professionals to make significant changes in their work and lives. We have mentored and coached hundreds of creative clients from across the globe to improve their work, lives, businesses, and their careers. We love helping creative people be more successful. Take your moonshot! Ceri hand talks about the services that Artist Mentor provides, and how, with the right kind of tailored coaching, you can achieve creative, professional and personal goals that may have previously eluded you. [The video will open in a pop-up window] Whether you want to make better work, attract more studio visits, exhibitions, build your network, create a more compelling website, make more income, or get that new job, we can help you shine. Together we take stock of your work and creative journey to date, clarify your strengths, purpose, and opportunities, and define the steps you need to take to achieve your goals. We work with individuals over an agreed period, as a challenging, critical friend, providing accountability to ensure lasting transformation. We plan with you how to integrate what you’ve learned within your everyday life and schedule, ensuring you continue to thrive. We provide one-to-one and group sessions, providing learning and skill sharing opportunities through expert led classes, resources and free community events and resources. We also have a network of Associate Mentors we provide regular work to - a diverse mix of experienced artists, curators, educators and gallerists, enabling us to respond to increased demand and support a growing range of client and sector needs. All sessions are confidential and your Artist Mentor mentor or coach will be a committed, trusted critical friend. Why get a Mentor or Coach? If you’re a creative, chances are you’re an introvert, deep thinker and highly sensitive - great qualities for realising innovative work! Unfortunately, we know that a high percentage of creative people can often feel isolated, rejected, and suffer from self-doubt, negative self-talk, or imposter syndrome. Old stories may weigh heavily and inhibit your growth, or you get stuck in a fear of failure loop or suffer from self-destructive habits. It might be that you simply can’t see the wood from the trees and have lost sight of your priorities or strengths. Having a trusted champion, committed to helping you flourish, helps you identify and make the changes necessary to reach your goals. A mentor or coach believes in you, recognises your special sauce, identifies opportunities, new tools, and growth potential with you, setting you challenges or targets to help you take the appropriate steps. What's the difference between Mentoring and Coaching? Mentoring A Mentor can serve as a critical sounding board at critical points throughout your creative career, providing an insider's perspective and guidance you may not be able to get from other sources. The role of a mentor is to listen, learn, and advise and is usually a longer-term relationship. A mentor can help you excel in your practice and career, and become the best version of yourself, helping you achieve your goals, introducing you to new ways of thinking, challenging your limiting assumptions, signposting, and offering critical feedback. A mentor will often draw on their personal experiences and expertise to help advise and encourage dialogue with their mentee. This could be in the form of sharing a story, tools, resources, or lessons learned from a challenge they overcame in their career. This kind of personal dialogue is encouraged in a mentoring relationship. Coaching A Coach encourages self-discovery and growth to secure lasting change. Together we assess your current situation and challenges, identify limiting beliefs, interrogate, and address perceived obstacles. We create a safe thinking environment, ask incisive questions and devise a custom plan of action designed to help you achieve specific outcomes. We nurture creative strategies based on what fits best with your goals, personality and vision and foster accountability to increase productivity. Coaching partnerships are usually more short term than mentoring relationships, as they are usually objective driven and more structured. Someone may seek out a coach to help them develop a specific skill or work through a particular limiting belief. The coaching could well end once that skill or objective had been acquired. A coach can help increase your self-awareness: identifying areas for improvement, and challenging assumptions that may be preventing you achieve your goals. Coaching is often used for the development of leadership skills, where they may train you in the art of questioning to equip you to manage others better or identifying limiting beliefs in yourself. The relationship between a client and their coach is a collaborative creative partnership.

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plymstock children's centre (barnardos) 01752 407496

Plymouth

The Plymouth Online Directory, or POD, is provided by Plymouth City Council and contains information, advice, help, and support services for adults, young people, and families who live and work in Plymouth. The majority of this website is focused on health, education, social, and wellbeing services. Vision Create a network of integrated resources working together to enable and support people in the local community to live independently and make life choices that will improve their health and wellbeing.

home cook school

Kirkoswald

I’m a foodie through and through! I like to eat! I like to cook! Variety is the spice of life, and we shouldn’t get stuck in a rut when we cook. Cooking is a creative process and should be one of life’s great pleasures. I am a big fan of the local Ayrshire seasonal produce, and recently demonstrated dishes at the Ballantrae Festival of Food and Drink 2020 and Newmilns Food Festival, 2017. I am lucky to live in a beautiful part of the world. Maybole is sandwiched between Culzean Castle and Country Park and Alloway where Robert Burns was born. The area is steeped in history and an abundance of local artisan produce. Farm shops sell Ayrshire meat, cheese, vegetables and all manner of other products. Of course, the coast is close by too with a fantastic array of seafood. With all of this on my doorstep, its not hard to be inspired. I believe it is important that we can all cook at least a few great dishes from scratch. Unfortunately, so many people don’t have the skills or confidence in the kitchen. Many people are short of time, and for some, cooking skills simply haven’t been passed down to them. There is an increasing awareness of the health benefits of eating nutritious home cooked meals. Furthermore, I think its very important that people eat together, in order to socialise and share time. BACKGROUND Prior to Home Cook School, I worked as a Lecturer within the Creative Industries Department at a local Further Education College. My role involved working with various student groups – both advanced and non-advanced, community groups and school classes. I love teaching people and seeing them develop knowledge, skills and confidence! Since I was very young, I have been a keen cook. I have travelled extensively, and learned from many different international cuisine styles. My husband and I love to eat out and plan our holidays around breakfast, lunch and dinner! I have attended many cook school classes including Tuscan and Croatian styles. Lindsay demonstrating at Ballantrae Festival of Food and Drink Lindsay Demonstrating at Ballantrae Festival of Food and Drink I love cooking lavish dinner parties, but more recently, my focus has been on cooking nutritious, economic, family meals. I am a strong advocate of reducing food waste by shopping thriftily, planning and using leftovers and often integrate these principles into my lessons. For years, many friends and family would ask me to share my recipes and cooking tips – this combined with my years of teaching experience, consequently gave me the idea to launch Home Cook School. For a long time, I was keen to become self-employed however, due to work and family commitments, I was never able to fully devote myself to the concept. In 2014 I gave up my Lecturing job (after 12 years) to focus on bringing up my young family. The following year I moved to Maybole, South Ayrshire and finally had a kitchen big enough to run classes from! In 2016, I decided to launch Home Cook School. I feel passionate about sharing my love and knowledge of home cooking with anyone who is keen to realise their ambition to become a better home cook! A SUSTAINABLE APPROACH TO COOKING LOCAL PRODUCE As an active member of the Ayrshire Food Network, we pride ourselves in using locally sourced, fresh produce. Not only that – we run cooking courses promoting both Scottish and Ayrshire produce, connecting our clients with local suppliers, supporting the local economy and teaching our clients where they can buy local! Click here to link with some of our suppliers. LOOKING AFTER OUR ENVIRONMENT In our lessons we promote ways to avoid wasting food. We are certified to deliver Zero Waste Scotland Love Food Hate Waste Cascade Training. We recycle our waste and when clients require disposable plates and cutlery for buffets, we use biodegradable products. We also car share where possible! GROW YOUR OWN We encourage our clients to try growing their own fruit, vegetables and herbs in our classes. We use home grown produce in many of our classes and catering. BIOSPHERE CERTIFICATION MARK We proud to hold the business Certification Mark for the Galloway and Southern Ayrshire UNESCO Biosphere, which is the stunning area of natural beauty that Home Cook School is situated within. Cooking tutor, and business owner Lindsay Guidi is also a Board Member of the Biosphere. South West Scotland is a place of abundant good quality food, drink and crafts which reflect the diversity and unique character of the countryside and region. One of the best-known crops in the Biosphere is Ayrshire ‘tatties’, known for their earthy, sweet flavour. With a reputation for producing high quality beef cattle, lamb and delicious dairy produce and of course some of the best seafood, the Biosphere offers a special, authentic food and drink experience.

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