Melanie has been involved with developing people for over 20 years and formed her training and consultancy business in 1995. Her specialist areas of training are the personal development skills which involve managing ourselves, managing others or being managed. She works extensively across the three sectors; public, private and voluntary nationally and internationally.

Trained initially as a Youth and Community Worker she has extensive experience of managing groups and individuals that enables their learning and development in a participative way that is always customised for the client's needs. With the wide range of experience she has had, Melanie is confident at stepping into sometimes difficult or fraught situations and being able to work with that situation leading to beneficial results for the organisation.

She has successfully undertaken an Advanced Professional Diploma in Consultancy Practice, a Post Graduate Certificate in Education for adult training, Life Coaching certificates, NLP Practitioner certificate and is currently undertaking a Diploma in Learning Facilitation Skills, TAP (Trainer Assessment Programme) with The Training Foundation.

Her range of courses includes: Assertiveness, Team Building, Effective Meetings, Presentation Skills, Leadership, Management Skills, Accredited ILM programmes, Communication Skills, Staff Development, Time Management, Facilitated visioning and Forward Planning and Evaluations, Problem Solving, Customer Care, Motivation and Delegation, Recruitment Skills, Managing Change, Appraisals, Influencing Skills, Handling Difficult People, Training Trainers, Stress Management, Coaching and Mentoring and much more.

Courses specific to the Voluntary sector include: Roles and Responsibilities of Management Committees and Trustees, Recruiting, Managing and Supporting Volunteers, Evaluating your Service, Understanding and Using an Outcomes Approach, and Understanding Strategy.

Trustee Development Working with the whole management committee of an organisation to look at the roles and responsibilities of being a committee member, their legal and managerial responsibilities, their meetings' structures, recruitment of new members, forward planning and prioritising their plans. Sometimes I have worked just with the committee but more often it is a combined process with the staff involved as well so that relationships between them are developed constructively for the well-being of the organisation.

Facilitation This covers a wide range of topics and skills. They are usually for a specific outcome that enables the organisation to move forward on a particular issue. For example, communication issues between partnerships, forward planning, establishing organisational goals and visions, and reviewing operational objectives and policies.

Consultancy This takes place over a designated period of time and involves a variety of approaches including observation, interviews with staff, volunteers, management committee members and group users, facilitated sessions, formalised training and background paper research. The outcomes of the consultancies have been recommendations, observational accounts and evaluation reports.