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The Defence Academy of the UK has brought in Sterling Training to deliver specialist programmes focused on trainer development, as part of efforts to build stronger instructional capability within the defence training sector.
As the professional military education and training institution of the Ministry of Defence for the UK Armed Forces, the Defence Academy of the UK is working with Sterling Training to enhance the quality of training delivery across its programmes, with particular attention given to improving the experience of those attending as international delegates.
The move reflects a shift that is becoming apparent across both defence and commercial organisations, where the changing nature of a more diverse and multicultural workforce has created a heightened need for adaptable instruction and greater focus on developing internal training capacity.
Headquartered in Southampton and founded by Managing Director Emma Lacey, Sterling Training offers training solutions that can be deployed at pace, across both in-person and online formats, providing support to clients at home and abroad and operating across both defence and business training sectors.
“To now be appointed by the Defence Academy of the UK is a real validation of everything we’ve built, and reflects our commitment to excellence, innovation and long-term impact in defence education and training,” said Emma.
The organisation was originally established to deliver rapidly deployable training solutions for military organisations.
“I started Sterling Training in 2015 to meet the demand for high-quality, rapidly deployable training solutions for international military organisations. Beginning in Oman, we quickly earned a reputation for delivering outstanding bespoke training, tailored to diverse operational requirements.
“TILT (Train the International Learner and Trainee) was born from that experience – designed to ensure our own trainers could deliver in any cultural context – but what happened next surprised even us. It was identified as addressing a critical gap within the British Army’s own framework, adopted as a solution and has since been delivered to more than 2,000 serving personnel,” added Emma.
The TILT programme was developed in 2016 to support effective, consistent and adaptable training delivery across varied learning environments and a wide range of learner profiles. It is embedded within Sterling Training’s trainer development approach and used across defence-related training contexts.
The appointment comes as defence and commercial organisations increasingly focus on strengthening internal training capability in response to changing learning environments, including the growth of hybrid and digital delivery models.
Within defence training environments, there is a continued shift towards developing internal instructional capability as organisations modernise training systems and adapt to evolving workforce requirements.
“Synthetic training environments come with inherent dangers”, says Emma, “if we simply bolt technology onto poor trainer practice, we simply have more expensive, less effective training.”
In addition to its international defence work, Sterling Training has held a continuous contract with the British Army since 2016, including the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, with 6–10 TILT courses delivered annually. Further details on trainer training courses for UK Forces personnel available online.
