Julian Knight, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Solihull, has met with directors and staff at one of Solihull’s biggest employers, Paragon Group, to help mark the first anniversary of the launch of its banking subsidiary and to see the firm’s cutting edge approach to training and apprentices. Paragon, which employes over 1,000 people at two key locations in Solihull’s Homer Road and Highlands Road, is a leading provider of specialist mortgages and consumer finance loans. A lender for 30 years, Paragon became one of the UK’s first ‘challenger banks’ last February, hoping to break the stranglehold of the UK’s big five High street names.
Julian had a tour of the offices and met with directors for talks: “It was great to meet the directors and staff at Paragon and get a real first hand view on what it is like for such a great Solihull company taking on the big banks.” He also met with young people working on the company’s apprenticeship scheme.
“It was particularly pleasing to see the great effort Paragon is putting into training Solihull’s young people. Paragon really believes in staff training and offering them opportunities for advancement. “
Julian has been running a high profile apprenticeship campaign in Solihull, which was recently recognised with a special visit from Chancellor George Osborne. Julian would like to see 1,000 apprenticeships created in Solihull over the next 12 months.
Nigel Terrington, Paragon Group Chief Executive welcomed Julian and introduced him to two young graduates from Paragon’s Team Leader Academy: “Learning and development are at the heart of Paragon’s people strategy and it’s great to see Julian’s commitment to expanding training opportunities for Solihull’s young people. We believe in hiring people with the right attitude and then providing the training to build and develop their skills.
“Paragon’s Team Leader Academy provides our employees with a structured development path. To date, almost 10% of Paragon’s employees have taken part in the Team Leader Academy, each gaining an externally accredited qualification and many stepping up to take on a more responsible role within our Group.”