don't just take our word for it

The Skills Collective worked to update our website and communications strategy. Sarah-Jane and Karen were great to work with - they took the time to really understand our third-sector organisation and brand, offering us a tailored blend of practical and strategic support. They delivered the work within a tight timescale whilst being responsive to ongoing feedback. We are looking forward to building our relationship with them through future work. 

Kate Robertson

Community Development Advisor

Outside The Box

Karen & SJ at The Skills Collective guided my business partner and I in the creation of our new business, Bacon & Crerar. They developed our brand identity, supplied a brand book which has been really valuable and created all of the digital assets we needed to get started. In addition they created a fantastic new website, which showcases our work perfectly. We felt involved throughout the whole process and appreciated the guidance that was always readily available. The team at The Skills Collective were also extremely flexible, and recognised we were a busy new business, so they worked around our demands. We would not hesitate to recommend The Skills Collective.

Mark Bacon, Owner

Bacon & Crerar

Working with The Skills Collective has been an absolute pleasure and fantastic learning experience. As a client, they took a genuine interest in our project and how we work  - including introducing new approaches we could take to maximise our impact. We are not only delighted in the finished product, but got so much from the process itself. Would highly recommend The Skills Collective!

Jill Keegan, Community Development Advisor

Mums Returning to Work

Karen and SJ have been superb in delivering exactly what we needed in facilitating our strategy discussions. Developing a simplified piece of work that really focuses on actions for the teams that actually support our priorities, aims and objectives as an organisation. A delight to partner with and guided the management team fantastically well. I would recommend contacting The Skills Collective to see how they could assist your business.

Carl Hodson, Managing Director

Ceteris (Scotland) Ltd

It was an absolute delight working with SJ and Karen at The Skills Collective. They are friendly, collaborative and proactive, and directly helped us to achieve our project objectives. Always enthusiastic and solutions orientated, I would not hesitate to recommend them, and hope to work again with them in the future.

Sandra Stirling, Director of Strategic Operations

Scottish Universities Scale-Up Consortium

We had done the marketing for previous Menopause Festivals ourselves, but as the Festival grew, we realised that we needed to call in some professionals since our volunteers could no longer resource it. We invited tenders from several companies and chose The Skills Collective. They presented a clear vision, communicated clearly with us, and provided a very useful report at the end of the campaign. I recommend The Skills Collective if you want to outsource your marketing. They created branding for #FlushFest2021 which we will use for future festivals.

Rachel Weiss, Chairperson

Menopause Cafe Charity

The Red String Agency has worked closely with Karen Nichol, co-founder and director of The Skills Collective, for the past decade and it was without any reservation that we subcontracted her new business to assist us with an exceptionally busy period leading into Christmas 2020 and again in March 2021.  

To have great quality, senior people who can hit the ground running on large projects is a fantastic resource for us and we will undoubtedly use their experience and skills again in the future. 

Nicola Martin

Managing Director

The Red String Agency Ltd.

Sarah-Jane has been an incredible trainer – the change in the group from the first few weeks has been huge, and you can see people coming out of their shell, and starting to share their own experiences week on week.

SJ has created a relaxed environment where the group can ask questions, share stories and dive deeper into certain elements of the training which has then benefited us all. As well as sharing personal experiences, SJ is able to relate the information we discuss to daily situations that we are all likely to face in hospitality.

Claudia Mackay

Governance and Support Manager EMEA 

Hilton Worldwide

I had the pleasure of working with Karen for a number of years during her time at University of Stirling Venues. During this time, I watched her completely transform the UoSV brand, delivering new campaigns and projects to elevate the venues. Her campaigns were always creative and impactful, and I was always impressed by her ability to find a solution to any problem. She's such a dedicated and focused professional and would be an asset to any organisation.

Fiona Lavender

Marketing Manager

Big Think Agency

Sarah-Jane designed and delivered a full day of bespoke training for a mix of new and experienced salespeople and we were delighted with the results. Feedback from the team was very positive, particularly around the way the session was delivered as it was very engaging with highly relevant content. I would absolutely work with Sarah-Jane again and highly recommend her training. 

Chris Lynch, General Manager 

Holiday Inn Arena Towers Amsterdam

Sarah-Jane is a dynamic, creative and tenacious business development and sales individual. Her positivity and focus always got fantastic results but also made her a pleasure to work with. During her time at Amaris Hospitality, Sarah-Jane was appointed to create and deliver a sales training plan for our re-active sales team across the business. Sarah-Jane devised an excellent interactive course which was delivered and received well by the Management and Senior Team. To support the Sales training Sarah-Jane also issued monthly performance results which demonstrated an improvement in sales conversion for individuals that had completed the course. I would recommend Sarah-Jane and The Skills Collective with confidence.

Jacquelane Airnes, Group Director of Sales

Amaris Hospitality

Sarah-Jane is an enthusiastic salesperson with the ability to inspire and coach people at all levels across a wide range of skill sets. Whilst working together at Amaris Hospitality, Sarah-Jane created and hosted a webinar training series for our on property conference & events team members across the UK that helped team members become more confident and empowered to improve the group mystery call results scores after just one session. The webinar was built around specific scoring criteria, as well as company brand standards in use at each property and went on to be added to the C&E team member induction program. Her ability to deliver effective training and quickly build relationships to engage with others is evident in virtual sessions as well as in person. I would not hesitate to recommend working with Sarah-Jane to improve your sales performance and customer service skills.

Lucy McNicol, Director of Sales Effectiveness

Interstate Hotels & Resorts