History

The original company, Rare Futures Ltd, commenced trading in 2002 and was dedicated to the development of programme and project management best practice with two directors, Rod Sowden and Claire Rookes.  

Between 2002 and 2004 the company achieved healthy growth and delivered a number of significant assignments and established a network of associate organisations that used Rare Futures to deliver programme, project and service management training across the UK and Europe. Notable clients included the BBC and the National School of Government.  Major training initiatives for organisations of the caliber of BT, Fujitsu, DEFRA, ATOS Origin, Prison Service and Westminster PCT were delivered through associate relationships. Support for national Training companies, for example, Xpertise, Mindscope (now ILX), FGI and Parity.

In 2004 the team made the decision to move to become an accredited training organisation in its own right, and bring new members on board to enable growth.  As part of this decision a new company was formed called Aspire Europe Ltd, and was incorporated in December 2004.  In the same year we were appointed to the panel of preferred suppliers of consultancy to the Office of Government Commerce.

During 2005 Aspire Europe Ltd grew steadily with its courses and material being used by national training organisations such as Unicom and Xpertise. It also began to win business in its own right.  The Planning Inspectorate, BBC and VOSA being notable clients. A major assignment was delivered to the OGC, reviewing public sector procurement of facilities management services, which included work on the NAO Public Sector food procurement report.

2006 saw continued growth with members of the team being recognized for their thought leadership resulting in appointments to the review groups for the OGC publications “Managing Successful Programmes” and “Management of Risk”.  Another member of the team has been appointed to the PRINCE2™ Review Group.