The company now known as CTI Limited was set up by the late Michael Bretherton in December 1975 as a recruitment organisation for expatriates in the Middle East and Africa, and named ‘Right Match Ltd’. At that time the key clients were BAe in Saudi Arabia and Patterson Simons. Michael Bretherton passed away on 15th March 2014. You can read his obituary here.

The recruitment operation was brought back to the UK, and Michael developed the Career Counselling side of the business with a small support team. Then the Recruitment side of the business was sold and the business changed its name again to Right Match International Limited (July 1978).

For three years from 1982 the business concentrated on Career Management and Counselling delivery with a major client being Rank Xerox. The business also wrote and developed a School Leavers’ Workbook, which was very successful in the Marlow area in helping children understand the transition from school to work.

During the 80s and 90s much of the work was training and equipping managers and staff to move from jobs in the Public Sector to jobs in the Private Sector. A significant contract was awarded in 1988 for outplacement within the GLC. Another key contract was awarded with ILEA to re-train 700 employees, mainly in middle management, over a 9 month period in 1989 assisting them to look for further work. These contracts enabled the business to develop the existing materials into professional workbooks for Outplacement and Career Counselling. In addition in 1989, the business won a large contract for the National Nuclear Corporation providing Career Management for 6-700 retraining employees. During the 80’s much Career Management & Counselling work was also done working with a number of NHS Trusts and Authorities while they were re-structuring.

In 1990 the business was successful in winning another contract with British Rail where Career Management, counselling and training was provided at British Rail’s Management Centre in Watford.

Also in 1990 the company changed its name from Right Match to Career Match International Ltd to reflect the Company’s emphasis on career management.

In 1994 the core staff team expanded when the business won a further British Rail contract to retrain 2-300 people from various BR subsidiaries preparing for privatisation, in Derby and a further Research Group at Alexandra Palace. In 1995 Career Match won a large tender to re-train around 400 employees in five centres, in Euston, the City of London, Derby, York and Darlington. This was followed by a similarly sized contract extension one year later. For this period the Company was trading under the name Enterprise Counselling Services or ENCOS. Another contract was obtained with London Underground Limited and the trainers successfully re-motivated 12 members of staff.

Elisabeth Tootill joined Career Match in April 1998 as Business Development Manager and from 1999 Michael and Jane Bretherton concentrated on preparing the business for sale. Maggie Courtney expressed interest in the late Autumn of 1998 and bought the business on 1^st April 1999.

Maggie Courtney renamed the business Careers and Training International Limited (April 1999) to reflect what the business was now doing. Elisabeth Tootill continued as Business Development Manager and then took on the role of UK Director when Maggie moved to America.

On 1^st April 2001 Elisabeth became the Director of the business, and the owner together with her husband Richard. The name was simplified in April 2007 to CTI Limited.

Since Elisabeth took on the business, she has been concentrating on developing and taking it forward into the 21st century and particularly developing the associate and consultant base, and as a result expanding the range of services the business can provide through the consultants. Despite taking on the business as a going concern, it was of primary importance to concentrate significant time and resources on developing a range of services to win contracts of varying sizes in Consultancy, Training, Coaching and Career Management Services across a wide rage of clients in the Private, Public and Voluntary Sectors. CTI has carried out work in the Rail industry, and public sector (including Local Authorities, Housing sector and the NHS) as well the Private sector including Retail and the voluntary/not-for-profit sector, working at all levels and various sizes of contracts. Much credibility has been established in the business through the excellent tailored services it has offered to its clients through our consultants and associates.

For examples see the portfolio of CTI Consultancy and Training Services, Coaching Services and Career Management Services, and our client quotes.

In April 2018 we celebrated Elisabeth's 20th anniversary of joining the business.

The leadership of CTI has been strengthened by the addition of Philip Louis as Chairman from April 2017.

After 19 years of leading the business, Elisabeth and Richard are delighted to hand on the CTI baton to Joanne Dunham for the next leg of the race. Joanne joined the Management Team as a Director in early 2020, and in April she became the majority shareholder, enabling Elisabeth and Richard to take a step back. At a Board Meeting in July 2020, amidst the coronavirus pandemic, we had a socially distanced handover of the share certificate.

With the pandemic requiring most employees to work from home, Joanne has started to lead CTI into a new season of remote working, virtual workshop delivery and online coaching. Although the delivery method has changed, CTI’s commitment to valuing every individual, and serving all our customers by creating tailored solutions, continues.