A PASSION for training people led to Ian Smith setting up his own business from the back bedroom of his Worcester home.

Four months after those beginnings, the Corporate Training Warehouse is climbing the ladder of success after attracting two major clients - the Prudential Insurance Company and Virgin Direct - with interest from other big names including Virgin Money, Canada Life, HSBC and major German bank KleinWortBenson.

The business has also expanded into offices at King Charles Court in St John's, and employs three company directors, including managing director Mr Smith, and two support staff.

"We've been amazed at how quickly things have taken off," said Mr Smith.

"We started at the end of October and we landed two major clients this month. I anticipated it would probably be about July before we'd won any major contracts so we're three to four months ahead, which is great news."

The Corporate Training Warehouse acts as a conduit for businesses who cannot provide in-house training.

Mr Smith has built up a panel of around 70 trainers who are experts in their particular subject or topic and, when a client comes to him, Mr Smith finds the appropriate trainer to suit the client's needs.

"All the trainers were selected by me for their particular expertise in a subject matter and who they have worked for in the past," he explained.

"One guy we use is Robin Sieger, a motivational trainer who has worked for IBM and Microsoft."

Mr Smith, a former regional director for the Legal and General insurance company, says the business has been built around his experiences of people management and motivation within big companies.

"I have a real passion for training and decided to set up the company because nobody else seemed to be doing it and it also gave me a chance to get involved in training," he said.

The company does not only provide training. Mr Smith's co-director is a psychologist by profession and his job is to build and design a framework of training and personal development for organisations.

Mr Smith himself runs a motivational course "realising the champion within" aimed at local business people, whether they work for themselves or employ a small number of people.

The course has been approved by the Individual Learning Account Centre and means that Government funding is available to supplement the cost of the course.

For more information, contact the office on 01905 731730.