Years of research conducted by my consultancy, Business Blueprints, demonstrated that chronic fear of failure and  the absence of self belief undermines productivity and limits both employment and career progression.

The MAGIC PROGRAMME was created in the 1990’s to induct low academic achievers into the workforce for a new shopping centre at Meadowhall, near Sheffield, with the aim of delivering a level of customer care consistent with the excellence of the Centre’s architecture.

The syllabus is drawn from courses I completed in my career within major companies – from basic sales training, listening skills, public speaking to board level leadership skills.

These courses were adapted by a small team including two primary school teachers, whose task was to make them suitable for 16–18-year-old school leavers with low academic achievements.

After some months of trial and error, the MAGIC PROGRAMME came to life. 

It was made up of 10 modules;

The key learning from the programme was that belief was the key to success. With that, people would prepare to fail, in order to proceed to success.

Meadowhall produced 2000 MAGIC “ graduates“ and went on to win awards from the Daily Telegraph and the BBC for service excellence, the first shopping centre to achieve such accolades.

Since then, over 35,000 people in the UK, Germany and Ireland – entrants to work and long-term unemployed, in partnership with the Departments of Employment in each of those countries - have experienced MAGIC and the changes it made to their life skills and their employment opportunities.

( See the list of sponsoring organisations below.)

I have summarised the research foundations behind the programme and the 10 modules in my recently published book “ GREAT SERVICE, GREAT SALES”

Although the book leans towards hospitality, the principles have been applied to the wider world of work with applications  through the UK Department of Work and Pensions.

LIST OF SPONSORSHIP LOCATIONS