PET project

Coventry-based training company PET-Xi celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2025 so C&W in Business caught up with CEO and co-founder Fleur Sexton DL on her three decades running the firm and her plans for the future.

During that 30 years, she has also become a Deputy Lieutenant of the West Midlands, picked up an Honorary Doctorate from Birmingham City University, landed a national Businesswoman of the Year award and is now a lifelong ambassador of the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce after serving on its board for six years.

It’s 30 years since Fleur Sexton and her husband, Chris, decided to take the plunge and start a business.

And not only has PET-Xi gone on to be a real success story for the region, it has taught her plenty of life lessons along the way.

But the reason she established the company in the first place – to give people support to change their lives through learning – is still what gets her out of bed in the morning.

“I will never lose that passion and desire to help people find what they want to do in life and to achieve it,” she said. “It’s always, always possible – no matter their start in life or challenges along the way.”

PET-Xi began from very humble beginnings.

Fleur was teaching French to partially sighted and blind students and could see the barriers that were placed on their learning.

She designed a product to help overcome that –Teacher’s PET – that used audio recordings to support learning.

It lit a fire in Fleur and PET-Xi was born.

Now, 30 years on, hundreds of thousands of people have been supported by the business and it continues to deliver.

Work focuses on where the need is. This includes working directly with individuals looking for work or in low paid work and helping to upskill them for the next step on their career path, online learning for people in work who need to upskill to develop their career or meet the needs of the business, and also with schools where students may need extra support to get them through their exams, especially maths and English, or when mainstream school is not the answer.

PET-Xi is also working with West Midlands Combined Authority on a project called Path to Apprenticeships that gets individuals ready to take on an apprenticeship programme.

On the schools front, there is now an even greater call for help with careers advice and guidance –as well as mental health and wellbeing support, particularly for those with ongoing skills gaps as a result of Covid-19.

Wherever PET-Xi can overcome barriers to learning – at any stage – the business is ready to support.

“We work on different types of projects because the thing with PET-Xi is: we will always be where the need is,” said Fleur.

“For example, after lockdown, there's been a lot more emphasis on supporting emotional mental health and wellbeing. There's a lot more on skills gaps. If that is the priority, that's where we will focus.

“We've always been very good at being able to be agile and to flex towards what's needed.

“Working directly with schools around the country, careers advice and guidance is a big thing now because everything is changing a lot. A new government always means change.”

In the West Midlands, there is also a direct focus on the industries where skills gaps are most apparent.

So, PET-Xi is involved in training specifically for the care sector, green industries, cyber, tech and