HUNTERS, the fast-growing York-based estate agency, believes that its credentials to win the Progress Through People accolade in The Press Business Awards 2007 are even greater than when it triumphed in the category in 2002.

Since then the organisation has become the 35th largest property services group in the UK, with 210 staff spread across ten offices - and at the root of that expansion is its newly-formed Hunters Training Academy.

Over the past year alone, 832 delegates, including staff and would-be franchisees, have passed through the academy, which has been adopted as an industry standard for its management training.

As reported in The Press, its courses are being rolled out throughout England by the National Association Of Estate Agents.

The process, which involves four days' intense training per employee each year, has ensured that 18 per cent of staff have either been promoted or developed into a further role within the company.

And the bottom line has been helped too, as all departments contributed to a 148 per cent increase in profits, year on year.

The academy's learning process is based on three major standards - for best practice, sales and management.

Its training has been so exceptional it has been endorsed jointly by the City & Guilds and the Institute of Leadership And Management.

Gayle Partridge, Hunters' training manager, said: "The key issue is to have the capacity to deliver the company's ambitious growth plans, while simultaneously delivering personal growth for our people.

"Hence the need for a training academy with defined goals and outcomes."