Now holding the title of the ‘Most Influential CEO’ for the United Kingdom, Joe Crossley has been taking Qube Learning from strength to strength. Working with strong moral calibre and helping people across the country realise their potential, the industry leading organisation is spearheading the way for education provision and employment support.
Joe Crossley, CEO of leading national recruitment and training solutions provider, Qube Learning, heads up a forceful organisation that wholeheartedly champions pre-employment training programmes, Traineeships and Apprenticeships across the nation. Joe’s undeniable commitment to looking at raw talent and how that can change not only someone’s life but a business too, has left large imprints across personal and professional spheres.
A progressive company that is always looking at ways it can enhance the experience for student and employer, Qube Learning supports many individuals, from school leavers to those looking to change their profession later in life and helps them get set up on the path to the rest of their career. It has developed a sensitive and empathic way of working that has been lauded as exemplary, and its courses cover a wide range of topics, as well as delivering programmes from Level 2 to Level 5. Recently, Qube has also been expanding its services to national recruitment. This has seen the advent of Qube Talent, which focuses on providing support to employers and pointing them at the right employees to match the roles they need filling, a service which has proved invaluable to many, with the dust of the pandemic somewhat settling and employers turning back to filling their ranks once again.
Through this platform, Qube assists with the retraining and upskilling of candidates too, using an up-to-date training catalogue. In tandem with this, Qube has funnelled significant investment into its Qube Vision platform; this eLearning solution sharpens skills and encourages the learning of new ones and has enabled learning to continue throughout unpredictable climates. This is part of what has supported Qube in becoming a Matrix accredited Ofsted ‘Good’ provider. Joe Crossley, the CEO, appreciates what it is like to finish education and not know what direction to go in, and is therefore committed to making choices more visible for those in the same place he was. He got on well as a Retail Manager, finding his passion in problem-solving and people management – but mostly, he was inspired by helping the young people working for him to similarly progress.
With Qube’s ‘Steps to Success’ programme, the company created accessible early career courses and worked with some of the UK’s largest employers, developed to give people the tools they need for career advancement. Qube has become a market leader in this sort of work and is a household name for employers and employees alike, fuelling ambition and motivated as always by Joe’s passion for supporting younger people. Joe further bolstered Qube’s model and growing reputation by writing opinion articles, topical news stories on the industry, and moving case studies on their incredible young and mature students; all of these provided clients with a clear idea of what they can achieve with Qube.
The clear and consistent PR and marketing paid off, with a significant boost in users and a growth spurt that shows no signs of stopping. Internally, Qube has also been increasing and developing, too. The culture created within the company is one of constantly striving for bettering oneself, following clear roadmaps and being transparent about milestones. It is fundamental that everyone understands where the company is heading and why, to help it get there. Joe speaks to his team every day, bucking the trend of appraisals and emailing, going the extra mile to keep in touch and ensuring everyone is seen and heard.
Qube took a significant knock at the end of 2020 with the loss of its owner, Gavin Whichello. A mentor and friend to Joe, and someone always willing to productively talk through issues and ideas in detail, Gavin – a gregarious character – was a cornerstone of operation and will be sorely missed. Throughout this difficult time, Joe found himself stepping up to encourage the company towards further expansion: growing provisions across different funding streams, seeing the development of the Traineeship programme and being proud of how far it has come, despite it being a challenge. Additionally, Joe has focused more on becoming a more strategic mind for Qube over the years, developing a long-term strategy for the company that will shepherd it through the next 10 years. Qube have worked closely with IFATE, the Traineeship Policy Team, accruing trustee status with many charities, and contributing towards numerous roundtable events; Joe has successfully rounded out his role at Qube and contributed fundamentally to the business’s progress.
Qube is now also widely known as a 2019 Association of Employment and Learning Providers AAC Award winner, Learning Providers AAC Award winner, and Skills for Care Endorsed Provider. It also recently won the Educate North Social Mobility provider of the year award for its work encouraging ‘disengaged young people’ into employment. It fully believes that everyone has the right to learn in a manner that is comfortable. Therefore, it has a staunch dedication to the goal of not letting postcode or background be an obstacle to education, eliminating that barrier for its service users.
In this manner, Qube is not just an employment provider, but an instiller of self-belief and worth. It wishes to shine a light on what success can be to people who may have never thought education to be an accessible thing for them, facilitating the growth and development of talent and ambition. Through this, Qube has been proving its status as a ‘people first’ business, working with students, customers, employees, and employers to increase productivity in every element of its operation. The clientele that reaches out to Qube are also a widely varied and international market segment, with global, national, and local businesses represented, as well as working with businesses from small to enterprise scale. Therefore, its recruitment service, Traineeships and Apprenticeships are highly scalable across all sizes of business and are accessible and flexible, working closely with employers to provide a bespoke long-term service.
Its work can be described as being on a ‘national scale with a localised approach’, and it has an operations team of skills tutors delivering coaching and learning. This ranges vastly in field, from leadership and management to business services, as well as health and social care, hospitality, retail, warehousing and logistics, and how to work within small, medium, and large-scale companies. Its dedicated learning support specialists are also on hand throughout the course to help students with their Functional Skills qualifications. Quality and compliance are also something that fall within Qube’s remit and reassures Qube’s clientele that its services are delivered with consistent quality, continuous improvement and rigorous quality testing.
Even though the last year has been challenging with the pivot to fully remote work, Qube has been continually impressed by its employees. Each person being committed and hardworking, inspired to help each one of its service users on a personal level, they are charismatic, knowledgeable, and friendly. Its tutors have also learned how to help students manage the increased stress and anxiety of the pandemic. Further to this, in the coming months, Qube is setting up a new internal training team, continuing to work on its online service provision, empowered by the motivation and drive of its team as it moves towards the future.
For further information, please contact Mollie Whichello or visit qube-learning.co.uk
