When Cameron Saunders joined Saxon Air as Sustainability Officer in May 2024, he knew he had much to learn. What he hadn’t expected was to be solely responsible for preparing the company’s first full Environmental Impact Report. However, thanks to support from colleagues and a focused Skills Bootcamp, he has risen to the occasion and even helped Saxon Air win another award.
Cameron has always had a passion for aviation, but he’d only worked in customer service and administrative roles in the health care, prison service and property management sectors. As such, he had limited knowledge of sustainability management and had never worked on emissions reporting. Saxon Air’s Sustainability Manager recruited him for his transferable skills and enthusiasm to learn.
“I was delighted to get to work at Saxon Air because it has a great reputation for customer service and for its commitment to making aviation more sustainable. They knew I’d have to upskill fast but that became more urgent when my manager went on maternity leave in September. That left me responsible for producing our first full Environmental Impact Report by the end of the year.”
Leaders in aviation sustainability
Saxon Air has headquarters in its Business Aviation Centre at Norwich International Airport. However, it flies a non-scheduled fleet of helicopters and business jets from airports in London and across East Anglia. The company’s commitment to leading in aviation sustainability includes using a Velis Electro aeroplane for flying lessons. This is powered by the first solar aircraft port at any regional UK airport.
Cameron had already agreed with his Sustainability Manager that he needed more training in writing sustainability and emissions reports. Then, in August 2024, their CEO suggested they look at the Skills Bootcamps being offered through Norfolk and Suffolk County Councils. That led them to meeting ESTU Global, a UK-based provider of Skills Bootcamps, Apprenticeships, and Innovation Programmes.
One of the Skills Bootcamps on offer was a Chartered Management Institute (CMI) Leadership and Management course (Level 4 or Level 5), with a focus on Carbon Reporting. “We chose the Level 4,” says Cameron, “as it aligned with my existing skills and my normal work, where I was already learning a lot.” An added benefit for Saxon Air was that SMEs only pay 10% of the cost of Skills Bootcamps because the Department for Education funds them through its Skills for Life programme.
Flexible learning for busy employees
Cameron gained his new qualification in November 2024 after a focused 12-week course. This involved a half-day a week of online training plus three full in-person training days at Carrow Road in Norwich. He also had to write two essays over the 12 weeks, which involved a steep learning curve.
“I had practically no experience of essay writing, particularly with the sourcing and cross referencing needed at this level. Thankfully Saxon Air were brilliant, letting me work on the essays in office hours so I could get guidance from more experienced colleagues on how to approach the challenge. The essay writing proved to be a critical skill that I was able to put to immediate use.”
One benefit of a part-time course is that you can apply what you have learnt to real world problems straight away. Cameron was able to use his new skills to start preparing the company’s first environmental impact report for 2024 and has since prepared another for 2025. These are not just internal documents, but public statements of how the business is delivering on its sustainability goals.
The course also gave Cameron the confidence to present his report to the whole company. “One thing it teaches you is how to focus on your message, particularly when dealing with a topic that can cause pushback. We need to tell a positive story of what we are doing right, what the benefits are for the whole company, and encourage people to get more involved in sustainability initiatives.”
Communications skills for life, not just work
Cameron found the communications element of the course surprisingly useful outside of work too. “I’m a football referee and the course instructors really helped me understand how the way we speak to people affects how they react. They shared various tips on how we could present ourselves with more confidence and so get a more positive response – and fewer challenges – from our audience.”
However, the most noticeable benefit of Cameron completing the course was that it helped Saxon Air win ‘Sustainable Workplace of the Year’ at the first East Anglia Clean & Green Awards. These awards celebrate leadership in sustainability across the region and across sectors.
“We had won the Aviation Sustainability and Environment award at the UK Aviation Industry Awards in 2024,” he explains. “However, this was the first time we’d competed against businesses from other sectors. Winning against less heavily regulated and scrutinised industries made it extra sweet.”
Clean and Green award finalists had to make it through two rounds of judging, including a site visit by the judges. This involved a challenging interview, in which Cameron had to present Saxon Air’s sustainability credentials. He was also responsible for collating Saxon Air’s emissions data, sustainability facts and other relevant company information for the awards entry.
“The techniques that I’d learnt on the Skills Bootcamp really came in useful when talking to the judges,” he says. “ESTU’s instructors had shown us how to weave data into a compelling story, including how to express it verbally alongside a written report. I was delighted when one of the judges, at the March 2025 awards ceremony, highlighted my presentation as a key part of our success.”
Your mind is like a parachute – it works best when open
Cameron was keen to learn as much as possible on the course but was a bit apprehensive about so much of it being online. “I prefer to meet people face-to-face,” he explains, “particularly as 80% of communications are non-verbal, and nuances can get lost in virtual chats. But the ESTU team understood this and went out of their way to make the experience both engaging and personal.”
He also enjoyed meeting other people with similar roles from other industries. “They were either new to sustainability reporting, or their business was embracing more sustainable practices. Either way, their new responsibility was communicating the progress and benefits of cutting carbon emissions.”
His top tips for getting the most out of Skills Bootcamps are “go into it with an open mind – and try to relate everything you learn to your current work because that will help you make sense of it. Then start applying that knowledge immediately, don’t wait for the course to end. This will help you to embed the learning in your behaviour and to see what most needs to change in your workplace a lot sooner.”
If you want to find out how Skills Bootcamps can benefit your business, please contact our Skills Broker, Bev Wallman at Bev.Wallman@suffolk.gov.uk.
