When Simon Corbett created Orangebox Training Solutions eight-and-a-half-years ago, he had helping people and businesses grow at the forefront of his mind. Fast-forward to 2024 and, even though the business is different to what he initially intended, he has certainly achieved his goals. And he isn’t ready to stop there.

As Simon chats away in his office at Tranquility House, Hartlepool Marina, he is rightly proud of what has been achieved so far. After all, he says, the training provider he runs now supports around 4000 learners on average each year with genuine employment opportunities and changes the lives of over 75 per cent of those.

What also becomes abundantly clear during this interview is how important it is for Orangebox to help people in the right way, whether that is the staff who work under him or the learners leaving with new qualifications or certifications.

When he thinks about why he has such an outlook, having spent years operating as a police officer and law enforcement agent, he reflects on his youth and the upbringing he had from his late mum and dad, Ian and Beryl.

“My mum was the hardest working person I have ever met in my life,” said Simon, who had a tear in his eye thinking about losing her in October last year.

When she had my only brother, Andrew, in 1971 she stopped working in Binns as a hairdresser in Hartlepool and set up working from home - and I can always remember having two old fashioned, sit-down hairdryers in the back of the house.

“Not only was she a hairdresser and an outstanding cook, but she was also the heartbeat of the family. After finishing a day’s hairdressing and preparing the family meals, she used to make sure the gardens were something that Chelsea Flower Show would be proud of. The house was immaculate.

“Breakfast was always ready for us all when we got up, the lunches were always made to the highest standard and the evening meals were a family occasion.


“We would sit down for the best home cooked meal there was and we’d talk as a family. I didn’t realise at that young age, but the conversations we would have around the table created me, the person I am today.” Those evening meals together, he says, helped embed a culture and strong morals, while developing characteristics such as integrity.

Simon added: “Without realising, those traits would come back to me at a later date because they are the key factors I believe in when it comes down to running a business - and helping others.”

He remembers as a schoolboy growing up, dreaming about becoming a footballer, organising football matches between friends and being more bothered about getting selected for the High Tunstall College of Science’s team than achieving strong GCSE results.

“It’s funny because when I think about things like that now, I just had that knack for pulling people together, creating a team, just like we now have here at Orangebox where I have developed into that role as a leader and owner of my own business,” he said.

Despite being an excellent non-league goalkeeper and a title-winning manager with Horden CW, Simon never made it as a professional footballer. The alternative was to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a police officer. He needed four GCSEs at Grade C or above and left school with two; he achieved the other two required in resits the following year.

After his studies, he secured a part-time job at a local bank, didn’t enjoy it, and three years later he left knowing a lot more about job satisfaction being a key part in personal development and helping with someone’s mental wellbeing.

Then he got the opportunity to join Durham Police as a uniformed officer working on a team where “camaraderie, hard work, teamwork were the key ingredients to make work enjoyable”. Again, such experiences have stayed with him when leading from the front at Orangebox.

Before he eventually created Orangebox in March 2016 with a second-hand computer from eBay worth £58 operating from his brother in law’s office, he had years working as a covert cop.


He said: “This was an interesting career, with lots of overseas work and the final years of my career within law enforcement was spent in a covert world.

“I reflect on my time as a police-officer/law enforcement agent just as well as my family upbringing because it really helped to give me the skills and knowledge needed, the tools to be the person I am. More than two decades of service taught me some good things but also taught me how to really look after people, how to embed a positive culture and team spirit, and how to make people feel valued.”

Simon had a period teaching surveillance across the globe, as a qualified teacher, in Africa, Europe and the UK. This was where the idea of Orangebox really stemmed from.

He said: “I realised from being a teacher and also an attendee on training courses that there was a stigma attached to training. Did people really enjoy attending training courses? Or did they get something out of it? Was it just a tick in the box?”

Having decided training was the sector in which to launch his new business, he needed a name and wanted to base that around a fruit or colour to grab people’s attention. He said: “I researched every colour I could think about and the meaning of orange really stood out. Its description talks about energy, happiness, joy, warmth, enthusiasm, creativity, success, encouragement, change, determination, health, stimulation and fun.

“Because I wanted to think outside of the box too, suddenly Orangebox had been created with a desire to build something special where clients and partners would be treated differently.”

For the first couple of years Orangebox built a reputation for delivering outstanding commercial training courses, including leadership and management, first aid, fire safety and other mandatory courses.

The client list started to grow with the likes of Engie and numerous local schools and organisations from a variety of different sectors, and to this date this reputation continues to grow.


And in 2018, with the team expanding, Simon was introduced to government funding and pre-employment training courses. As a subcontractor for a local college, the first course was delivered for an employer in Newcastle with ten candidates and all progressed into employment. Simon said: “That filled me with enormous satisfaction and I had this desire to grow this area of the business.

“And our reputation for delivering this funding the right way has really enhanced relationships with colleges across the North-East and North-West, including Hartlepool College of FE, Darlington College, Sunderland College, Stockton College, New College Durham and, more recently, the City College of Liverpool.”

Orangebox has secured direct funding contracts with the Tees Valley Combined Authority and the newly formed North-East Combined Authority over the last few years.

That has led to the company’s first full inspection from Ofsted, with Orangebox extremely satisfied to receive glowing feedback by openly talking about the culture, how staff are well looked after and there was praise for helping learners too.

Simon said: “Even though we change the lives of more than 75 per cent of our learners, we don’t forget those who are initially unsuccessful. Our aftercare team works extremely hard to ensure we help as many of our learners who attend our government funded programmes to gain employment.

“And the feedback we receive from our commercial clients across the UK and beyond in Spain and Dubai again reinforces our plans to make a difference in the world of training continues to take place.”

Orangebox has grown to a team of 71 members of staff since moving to Tranquility House three years ago, but Simon still remembers the days of sitting lonely in his office chair as a new business owner wondering what direction to take.

That is the thinking behind a new programme. Tees Valley SMEs can secure funded support from Tees Valley Expertise, which is delivered by Orangebox Training on behalf of the Tees Valley Mayor and Combined Authority and funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. Simon said: “We were extremely proud and thrilled to be able to offer this to help and support entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs within the Tees Valley region.


“We have built a team to provide these organisations with everything they need to help them prosper. If something like this was available in my early days after launching my own business then I know the stress and sleepless nights would have been a whole lot easier.

“The stories of how the Orangebox team are helping organisations from a host of different sectors is lovely to hear.”

Helping others is the message that continues to flow through the interview, and that is the thinking behind Simon becoming the chair of the Hartlepool Business Forum. He wanted to see his hometown’s business community prosper.

He is also a board member of the Hartlepool Mayoral Development Corporation and is extremely proud to be a business ambassador for Alice House Hospice. He is also a keen supporter of many other initiatives.

He said: “The role at Alice House is one I take very seriously because the more I have learned about the work they do, the more determined I am to help raise invaluable funds for them. We have held numerous events, including the annual Alice House Party which has gone from strength to strength and will be a sell-out in November once more.

“I like to support organisations that look to make a difference and being the shirt sponsor of local grassroots football club FC Hartlepool, seeing the Orangebox logo emblazoned across around 50 football teams’ shirts, boys, girls, women and men, is fantastic to see.”

And as Simon reflects on his journey so far with Orangebox, there is more than a hint of a tear in his eye when he considers those who effectively laid the foundations for him to be where he is today.

He added: “My parents taught me to be hard working, to be loyal, make people happy and give something back. As I sit in my office looking out over Hartlepool Marina I am extremely proud of what we have achieved at Orangebox, listening to how happy my staff are, and the learners we have guided on to their next chapter. I just want to say a big thanks to my mum and dad.”

*To express an interest in getting involved or to receive fully funded support sign up at teesvalley-ca.gov.uk/expertise or for further information on Orangebox check out orangeboxtraining.com