Building Skills For The Future

The Learning and Skills Council’s national skills programme, Train to Grain, aims to give businesses across England greater access to the training their employees need to succeed

In order to build UK global competitiveness, there needs to be a greater focus on higher skills levels. By ensuring employees have the rights skills to do the best job, the Train to Gain scheme can help boost a company’s productivity and keep it ahead of the competition.

Train to Gain offers every employer access to a free skills broker service, providing independent and impartial advice, and matching training needs with training providers. But with the programme’s current restricted focus on level 2 qualifications, this has missed the mark for many employers in the extractive and mineral-processing sectors.

Proskills has joined forces with other Sector Skills Councils and lobbied the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and new Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) to achieve a much more flexible and needs-responsive offering for businesses.

As a result, there is now a broad mix of funding or ‘deals’ available, which employers can take advantage of, including:

• level 3 subsidized training under Train to Gain in some English regions
• level 4 for people (in some areas) who have the ability to go straight on to higher-level qualifications
• a wage subsidy, which partly compensates the employer for training time away from the job, is available for companies with less than 50 employees (NVQ level 2 and Skills for Life only)
• schemes whereby women in management roles can get financial help to undertake management training (in some areas).

Jonathan Ledger, funded contracts manager at Proskills, said: ‘There are lots of different ways to get funding; it may be that an employer needs to make use of five different routes to obtain funding for training from various pots, but in every case they need to bear in mind that they will need to contribute something, even if it’s just paying for the employee’s time to attend the training.

‘We recommend that companies get in touch with Proskills in the first instance. We offer impartial advice and have a wealth of experience in understanding company training needs, matching them up with appropriate training provision and, where appropriate, funding to help to pay for it.

‘We may be able to get them significant funded contributions. It’s all out there – but employers need to tell us what they need.’

One quarry company to benefit from the Train to Gain scheme is Brett Aggregates, who produce 5 million tonnes of aggregates a year, half of which comes from marine dredging.

Brett Aggregates are part of the Brett Group, who employ 900 staff in the UK, Channel Islands and Virginia, US.

To support business growth and expansion, Brett have always been keen investors in staff development so that employees are equipped with the required skills and knowledge to achieve optimum performance.

Simon Elsy, HR manager at Brett Aggregates, said: ‘We consider it important to create a work environment based on our core values of customer care, quality and integrity. Our people are at the heart of our business.’

The company wanted to implement a comprehensive programme with the aim of raising competency levels and improving the business as a whole through ‘fit-for-purpose skills training’. One key area that Brett wanted to do better in was to minimize the impact of associated downtimes by providing an on-site delivery solution that worked around the day-to-day operational commitments of the business.

‘This required a training programme that would build on and support existing schemes as opposed to a standalone solution,’ Mr Elsy explained. ‘Some form of benchmarking was also required to measure the impact of the training and identify future training needs to ensure better and more targeted staff development.’

The first step in the process was to contact Proskills, who put Brett in touch with an appointed skills broker who fully understood the needs of and the challenges facing employers in the extractive and mineral-processing sector. As a result, a meeting between Proskills, Brett and the skills broker took place to help identify the right training provision based on Brett’s requirements. It was agreed that a training solution was required covering: mobile plant; process operation for quarry processing; and quarry management.

Over a number of years Brett have worked successfully with SERAC – an established and accredited NVQ assessment and training provider for the extractive and mineral-processing sector. The company were keen to maintain training delivery through SERAC but the provider did not have any funded contracts. So, with a preferred training company already in place, the next step was to look at the current funding opportunities.

Proskills had identified funding eligibility under the LSC’s Train to Gain initiative. To provide a co-ordinated approach to the development of the training programme, the Sector Skills Council initiated a working session that brought all parties ‘round the table’ to ensure that:

• the proposed programme met the business and operational needs of the company
• it entailed a deliverable implementation solution
• the maximum available funding was accessed and secured from the LSC.

The outcome was that contributory funding, worth around £165,000, was approved for 110 Brett employees working in the South East and east of England. The Train to Gain funding will allow operational staff to complete NVQ training, with another 40 Brett employees to take part in the programme, although they were not eligible for funding.

Lasting three years, the training will be carried out in phases specifically designed to cover the aforementioned areas. ‘We recognize the value of NVQ training not only as a way of ensuring a competent workforce, but also of providing a safe working environment and increasing operational efficiency,’ said Oliver Brown, Brett Aggregates’ operations manager.

‘In addition, evidence of qualifications provides quality assurance and demonstrates competence to our customers, the HSE and other key stakeholders. As a result, we have set ourselves the target of putting all our key personnel through the relevant NVQ training by 2010.’

Before the programme commenced, Brett undertook a full review of the training activities to ensure alignment of the content. Key performance indicators were also put in place, including:

• staff turnover/retention rates
• accident reduction
• maintenance costs
• energy saving
• waste reduction.

Mr Brown continued: ‘We were looking for a provider who could deliver a complete ‘cradle-to-grave’ training programme, commencing with registration of the candidate, right through assessment and verification, to completion of the NVQ and achievement of the relevant standard. Furthermore, we required full integration into existing programmes, as well as a scheme that would support our need to maintain safe and profitable operations.

‘Proskills, SERAC, and our internal HR expert have worked together to develop a training programme that does all that, and the procurement of significant contributory funding has enabled us to manage and reduce the costs of training to the business as well.’

The training scheme has acted as a catalyst across the Brett Group with other subsidiaries looking to increase competence development and business-improvement training initiatives, which could double the number of participants in the programme over the next three years.

Training has now commenced and Proskills remains in a supportive role, reviewing progress at regular intervals to ensure the programme is aligned to the needs of the business.

‘Working closely with Proskills has been extremely positive,’ commented Mr Elsy. ‘With their knowledge and understanding of the sector as a whole, and their ability to navigate clearly through the current funding regime, they have allowed us to not only put into place the appropriate training strategy, but also to secure a significant funding contribution towards the cost of the training. Proskills should be the first point of contact for all skills, training and funding-related issues.’

For further information on how upskilling a workforce can bring tangible benefits to a business, or about funding towards the cost of training, contact Proskills on tel: (01235) 432032.