Mortgage Advice Bureau (MAB) has opened a new learning and development centre near to its head office in Derby to keep up with growing demand from candidates pursuing a career in the mortgage industry.

The MAB training academy has seen significant growth in recent years with over 300 people coming through the academy to become fully qualified mortgage and protection advisers.

In 2019, the MAB training academy was one of only 44 UK companies across all industries and sectors to win the Princess Royal Training Award. The brands chosen – including the likes of IBM, the DVLA and Wilko – are selected by HRH Princess Anne herself honouring UK employers that have created lasting impact by successfully linking their skills development needs to business performance.

The new MAB learning and development centre will now allow up-to 20 learners to undertake their courses in a purpose-built training environment. It is a two-floor facility where the top floor will be used for course delivery whilst the bottom floor will contain a recording studio to shoot all the e-learning packages and tools for learners to use prior to taking part in a course.

David Bedlow, head of learning & development at Mortgage Advice Bureau, said: “It is very exciting to announce the opening of our new learning and development centre. This is a dedicated facility for our learners and will ensure we continue to develop and improve our offering.

“We are extremely proud of the MAB learning & development academy, and the role it plays in helping new people to start a career in financial services. To have had over 300 advisers come through this programme is a testament to the hard work all the L&D team put in. Due to the popularity of courses, we’ve always held the academy offsite at purpose-built facilities which has impacted on its results in a positive way. This new facility will allow us to do similar with all of our other in-house programmes.

“We’ve also recently won an award from Coursecheck – the company we use to monitor our course results. Coursecheck gather feedback from learners who have taken part in all forms of learning, whether that be induction, academy or field-based workshops. The award we received was given for the highest average course feedback scores from all 60 companies they collate feedback for. Again, this is down to all the hard work put in by the MAB L&D team.”