Our close ties with schools and colleges highlighted a lack of take up of secretarial and administration based courses over recent years. We were able to work with those establishments to paint a positive picture of the type of career success previous students are enjoying, so encouraging new students onto the courses.

Suzanne Barnes is a former ACR Student of the Year, winning the title in 2006 while on an administrative procedures course at New College, Stamford.

She landed a job at an investment management company in London as an executive secretary and sees a host of avenues opening up to her thanks to her wide-ranging skill set.