The Past 18 Years and the Future

Following the recent retirement of my fellow director, Paul Simpkins, I am pleased to announce that I am now the sole director and chairman of Act Now Training Limited. 

The past 18 years has seen our company grow from a two-man band to one which now employs 7 fantastic staff and works with 11 brilliant associates. My role has developed from being the principal trainer to designing, delivering and overseeing a training programme in three different jurisdictions.  

Our first programme of courses started in February 2003, at the National Railway Museum in York, with a workshop on the Data Protection Act 1998. The Data Protection legend that is Rosemary Jay, former Head of Legal at the ICO, was a guest presenter. All 42 delegates (and speakers) were able to have photos taken (now known as “selfies”) with the Rocket, the Mallard and Queen Victoria’s train. You can see here that I have not changed a bit! 

Back then we were also engaged by other training companies to deliver their data protection courses. On terminating our arrangement, one such company said to me “These data protection courses have a limited shelf life. They will never catch on!” Fast forward 18 years and we now run a full programme of online and classroom courses, with over 500 training days delivered in 2019, covering data protection, freedom of information, records management, surveillance law and cyber security.  

During the Coronavirus pandemic, we took the opportunity to further develop our online programme. We re-evaluated and developed our online courses from the ground up to ensure they provide the same interaction and quality as our classroom workshops. Our flagship GDPR Practitioner Certificate course has been delivered 7 times in the last few months with every course being fully booked and receiving excellent feedback! 

A Data Protection Officer’s role has certainly evolved over the last few years. DPO’s now find themselves in a statutory position and having multiple responsibilities which require a range of skills. Our mission is simple. We aim to help develop the most complete Data Protection Officer who has all the skills required to tackle the privacy challenges that organisations encounter in an increasingly data led world.  

We will continue to develop exciting new courses that are practical and jargon free. This approach has been a defining value of the company over the years. A recent delegate said it most succinctly, ‘An Act Now course tells you what you need to know and how you need to do it. Simple. No Fuss. No Frills. Act Now makes GDPR easy and accessible.’  

In the last few years, we have grown beyond our own shores and find ourselves delivering more training internationally.  I have had the pleasure of training government officials in Brunei as well as professionals in the financial sector for the NAPCP conference in Las Vegas. With our recently launched CCPA and Dubai privacy programmes, there are hopefully more exciting times ahead.  

Last week I was interviewed twice by the BBC regarding the NHS Test and Trace app. Firstly on 5 Live and then on television for BBC News which was a particular highlight for my family; even though my children said I should have used some skin toner and worn glasses to make me look intelligent!  

All of this has been achieved through unwavering support from friends and family (present and dearly departed), as well as our wonderful trainers over the years. A special shout out here for two great women without whom I would not have started this journey. Susan Betteridge was my first line manager and encouraged me, as a newly qualified solicitor, to try my hand at training. Andrea Nollent was my first law lecturer at Kirklees College who instilled in me a passion for law and supported me to pursue it as a career.   

Finally, thank you to all our wonderful delegates who have stuck with Act Now Training over the years and, through honest feedback, have helped us develop a wonderful range of courses. I have always said that your questions and willingness to challenge my views makes every course a learning experience for me too. Onwards and upwards!