We’re delighted to learn that James Swift, our Head of Talent Development, has been selected as a finalist for the British Training Awards 2025.
The British Training Awards celebrate those who are passionate about learning and development’s role in building a thriving workforce. James has been nominated in the ‘People Awards’ category for ‘Leader of the Year’ thanks to his dedication to talent development at Leyton.
Over the last seven years, he has played a leading role in modernising our talent development programme, ensuring it achieves the absolute best for our business, our clients, and the individuals who make up our hard working teams across the entire organisation.
James has pioneered a coaching-first, data-driven, and impact-led approach that has helped embed a culture of lifelong learning at all levels of the business.
Part of the success of his approach has been aligning learning and development with business objectives and driving revenue. As a result, we’ve seen some truly impressive results, such as:
- Doubling new hire revenue.
- Halving ‘time to success’ for new sales hires, dramatically cutting down the time it takes for them to achieve their 10th bookings.
- Achieving a 929.5% ROI from technical consultants and a 990.25% ROI from financial consultants within their first year.
- Seeing a 30% increase in revenue from teams whose managers attended leadership development training.
- Having 96% of staff agree that they receive development support for their current jobs.
- Having 94% of staff agree that a culture of learning exists at Leyton UK.
- Receiving the LPI’s Exceptional Learning Organisation accreditation – twice!
On becoming a finalist, James said: “It’s very rewarding to be nominated for something that I’m so passionate about. I wanted to create a learning environment at Leyton that truly supports our whole team’s career growth and helps them achieve their learning and development goals.
“It’s been fantastic to see everyone at Leyton embrace the new culture of lifelong learning, so much so that learning and development now truly sits in the hands of our people. Being named a finalist for the prestigious British Training Awards is a testament to our collective achievement. Good luck to all the finalists – I’m sure it’s going to be an inspiring ceremony.”
Nate Harwood, Founder of New Possible, the next-generation employee insight platform that’s behind the award, said: “We were humbled by the record number and quality of entries this year. L&D is the powerhouse behind an agile and resilient workforce, and we’re proud to recognise the talented teams and individuals who make this possible. Congratulations to all our finalists.”
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