ATG Training renames as Activate Cycle Academy and plans Guildford cycle training centre

UK Cytech training provider ATG Training has become Activate Cycle Academy. The name change and rebrand is the final leg of the Activate Learning group takeover which began in 2016 and resulted in the old ATG Training headquarters and operations being relocated to Oxford in 2018.

Originally founded as the Aylesbury Training Group back in 1967, this latest move fully integrates the cycle training business within Activate Learning. There’s a new website, marketing material and staff uniform to reflect the update. Operationally, there will be no change to their existing course structure, the training team or the service offered.

The firm did reveal that Activate Cycle Academy will open a brand new cycles training centre at another Activate Learning campus, Merrist Wood College, near Guildford.

“We are all very excited about our new brand identity,” said Cycles Sales and Marketing Manager, Matt Grant. “It reflects more accurately where we are today as a training company in terms of being part of the much larger educational group Activate Learning and no longer being based in Aylesbury.

“Within the greater Activate Learning group we have our own cycle-specific identity, something we never really had at ATG where it was always shared with engineering based training. This new focus on our specific Cytech courses and cycle maintenance apprenticeships will help keep us at the forefront of cycle maintenance training in the UK and worldwide.”

Cytech courses are developed with the industry and accredited by the Association of Cycle Traders (ACT), which manages Cytech on behalf of the cycles trade worldwide.

Grant added: “The benefits have been huge for us already. The amazing new, purpose-built training workshop in Oxford was a massive upgrade from the old Aylesbury centre, as highlighted when it was selected as the host venue for the final of the last Britain’s Best Bike Mechanic. In April we will also be opening a brand new cycles training centre at another Activate Learning campus, Merrist Wood College, near Guildford. These continued improvements to our training facilities only help to enhance the learners experience whilst attending our courses and ultimately benefit the cycle industry as a whole.

“The new website, in particular, will make the whole online process smoother, easier and more straightforward to use with concise, up to date course information and a more streamlined booking and payment system.”