Treetop Training was founded by Matt Lent.  He works closely with other experienced training and education professionals developing and delivering targeted training programmes, creating a wide range of unique opportunities for both personal and professional growth.

Matt has worked in the community development, youth and education sectors for 20 years.  Qualifying as a Community and Youth Worker in 1995, he has since worked in a wide variety of settings, including with the homeless community at The Big Issue Ltd, with young people in residential support centres, leading on street based youth work initiatives, and as the Director of wide reaching local community initiatives.  Matt was the Operations Director of a national education charity for 5 years specialising in participation and active citizenship.

Matt has also sat on numerous working groups and committees, including the Partnership for Young London ‘Learner Focus Task Group’, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority ‘Engaging with Young People Advisory Group', the Department of Health ‘Emotional Health and Well-Being (EHWB) Stakeholders Group’ and the 'G&T Voice Working Committee'. Matt is also a Fellow of the RSA.

Treetop's ethos

Treetop Training has at it's core three key principles, these are relevant both in the way that it functions as an organisation and in how it seeks to engage directly with clients.

1). Self-responsibility
As true for young people as for adults, individuals are ultimately responsible for themselves, their own learning and development. In order to get the most out of any opportunities that present themselves the individual must first accept that they have choices and are in control of themselves and their actions, which will impact directly on how much or how little they gain from any experience.

2). Participation
For effective participation to work all parties need to be fully committed. In order to move beyond consultation and tokenism towards true participation, solid structures and a culture of listening, respect and responsiveness must prevail.

For learning to be at it's most powerful and to have its highest impact all participants must have a genuine sense of ownership and responsibility, to feel that their input and contribution is vital to their own success, as well as to the success of the group and the environment.

3). Collaboration
For truly effective learning and development to take place, members of a group need to recognise that their personal development, professional growth and success is closely linked and tied up with their colleagues and partners. Treetop events develop an atmosphere where people are not just responsible for their own learning but also for the learning and growth of everyone in the room, on their course, their partner organisations and workplace colleagues.

Through this approach Treetop is able to create an environment of shared responsibility, teamwork, support and cooperation.