If you’ve seen us mentioned in Business Live, Insider Media and other regional publications, Ascento has now become employee owned and operates for the benefit of the employees of the company, allowing all employees to share in its success and ensure the long term future of the business.  

As it's Employee Ownership Day, we thought it was time to comment on why we made this decision. Outgoing Founder and Managing Director Chris Ash, says “I have been really excited to step aside as the sole owner of the company and cannot wait for the whole team to share in the next exciting stage of our journey. 

Becoming employee owned means we are stronger together, means that we can all share in our successes and the culture will continue to strive through a collective spirit and drive.”

What are the main employee ownership options:-

There are three types of employee ownership:-

  • Direct employee ownership — employees become registered individual shareholders of a majority of their company's shares through one or more tax-advantaged share plans. Employee shares are held collectively on behalf of employees, usually through an employee trust;
  • Indirect employee ownership - shares are held collectively on behalf of employees, usually through an employee trust; 
  • Combined direct and indirect ownership — a mix of direct and indirect ownership.

Ascento Learning and Development have taken the indirect employee ownership route and elected Digital Marketing Tutor David Loydall to become the Employee Representative on the Ascento Employee Ownership Trust (EOT).

Why did we do it?

Notably, with a recent wave of high profile model conversions to an employee owned model, including Aardman Animations, Richer Sounds, and Riverford Organic Farmers, the business world is being transformed, refocused and inspired. The positive shift towards employee ownership in cultural terms shows just how we can positively change lives, where people are more empowered and motivated within their working lives.

Employee-owned enterprises have higher productivity and creativity levels, as well as known to be more resilient to economic downturns. They also have employees who are more engaged, fulfilled and less stressed.

A recent Think Tank also suggested that employee owned companies are expected to be “an important tool for bolstering the financial resilience of UK households and giving workers a stake in the economy after the pandemic.” (Guardian 2021).

A “culturally refreshing” training provider

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Chris Ash, outgoing MD and Founder of Ascento, "We have ambitious growth plans in place for the coming years as we look to cement our place as the leading provider of Digital Marketing and Management apprenticeships in the country.

What’s more, we have great foundations as the hard work of our leaders, tutors and staff at Ascento Learning and Development have been recognised within a recent report following on from our recent progress monitoring visit from Ofsted. 

I am excited to step aside as the sole owner of the company and cannot wait for the whole team to share in the next exciting stage of our journey."

What do we offer?

Ascento are a fully accredited provider of learning and development programmes, that have been designed to add real value to both our learners and the employers they work for.

At Ascento, we are dedicated to providing the highest quality professional learning and development programmes to upskill your current and future staff. When it comes to quality and performance, we don't take shortcuts, and we make sure that each programme we deliver is tailored to the objectives and goals of the learners and employers.

We specialise in Digital Marketing and Leadership and Management training, and our tutors have real-world expertise. We place a strong emphasis on offering high-quality and effective programmes for our pupils.

Our programmes

Our programmes are all designed to ensure that our students get the most out of their education and acquire the skills they need to develop and succeed in their careers. We understand that people learn in different ways, therefore we've created a range of ways for students to consume our content, including webinars, videos, e-books, one-on-one tutorial assistance, and even our own online portal to cover all aspects of learning. We can facilitate flexibly online learning and/or blended learning concepts nationally. Our delivery model is adapted to suit the employers and clients we work with.

Due to the changing nature of business as a direct result of the Covid-19 pandemic and in light of remote working with more demand for our industry leading digital marketing and management apprenticeship qualifications, companies now recognise the urgent need to up-skill their existing staff as the existing management structures need to be adapted and their traditional routes to market have changed.

To find out more about Ascento and our learning programmes, download a copy of our programme prospectus here