A collective approach to skills development

Citation

Watts, T. (2011), "A collective approach to skills development", Strategic HR Review, Vol. 10 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr.2011.37210aae.001

A collective approach to skills development

Article Type: HR at work From: Strategic HR Review, Volume 10, Issue 1

Short case studies and research papers that demonstrate best practice in HR

Employee development is vital in improving the operation of a business and helps to retain key staff at all levels throughout the organisation. Most people prefer to remain in a position where they experience professional and personal growth and they feel valued, and there is a need to encourage investment in training for the existing workforce to help employees become more productive. Crucially, companies must recognise the need to transfer knowledge and capture skills of the older workforce while there is still time.

Employees should have an opportunity to learn and develop, while it is in employers’ interests to bring everyone up to the same, high standards. However, from consultation with employers it is clear that they need a strong business case to support investment in skills training decisions. Furthermore, the impact of the recession and the fact that government funding streams are drying up means that employers have to dip increasingly into their own pocket to finance training. Therefore, training needs to be in those areas that deliver the greatest bottom line impact.

Traditionally, it has been the case that many companies prefer to undertake their own in-house training, as this reflects their business and operations and they can ensure that the right knowledge and skills are passed to the workforce. Yet, many employers accept that in-house training is often not recognised nationally or even outside its own organisation. However, there is no need for a conflict between in-house or open provision, and it doesn’t just have to be government-funded training that leads to recognised qualifications.

Sector-wide skills development

Proskills UK is an employer-led organisation that represents the interests of the industries that make up the process and manufacturing sector to government. Its role includes raising the profile, skills levels and competitiveness of the sector, including setting skills standards and qualifications and ensuring that the skills and funding system delivers against the current and future needs of the industry. It aims to increasingly capture in-house activity and standardise this training, with the ultimate goal of seeing such fit for purpose industry courses fully recognised in the process and manufacturing sector.

In May 2009, Proskills launched a Train the Trainer program across the UK process and manufacturing sector. The Train the Trainer scheme was initiated to enable in-house trainers in the sector to become fully recognised and accredited and thus allow training to become recognised nationally. Brenda McStravick from Quinn Group, one of the companies involved in the project, says: “Interventions such as the Proskills Train the Trainer course really help us to formalise our approach to training. The accredited in-house trainer at supervisor level is of enormous benefit to our packaging business”.

Benefits for business

Another company involved in the initial Train the Trainer project was Chesapeake, a leading supplier of packaging to the pharmaceutical industry. Chesapeake is fully committed to a training environment and invests heavily in skills development, such as negotiation skills, customer services training, first line and supervisory management training, presentation skills, IT training, management development and technical and packaging related courses. However, it recognised that first line managers need different and additional skills to operate in the difficult environment created by the global recession.

The Train the Trainer project was a cost effective way to support Chesapeake’s training strategy while allowing it to have four accredited trainers on site. It worked very closely with Proskills throughout the Train the Trainer project and in March 2010 an external tutor was sent to the Chesapeake site to deliver the two-day City & Guilds Level 3 Train the Trainer award to three of its employees. A further eight individuals from other companies also attended the course. This allowed Proskills to analyse the benefits of delivering courses such as this on site for employers, compared with candidates having to attend a classroom environment at a college. Also, Chesapeake not only fulfilled its own objectives of furnishing its first line managers with additional skills and accreditation to help them carry out their duties productively, but also supported the sector as a whole by facilitating similar opportunities for other companies within the footprint.

The program enabled Chesapeake to develop communication and presentation skills of team leaders enabling effective communication and engagement throughout the business and the emphasis on investing in training in the recession lead to projected increases in productivity. All who attended the course at Chesapeake felt they benefited from attending the course at an employer’s premises rather than by attending college. For Chesapeake employees, they felt at home and relaxed and the others enjoyed the opportunity to visit another employer’s premises.

Benefits for individuals

One of Chesapeake’s employees who took the course, Elaine McNeill, felt that she reinforced her existing skills as well as developing new ones. She says: “In my role there is a need to present information to various audiences with confidence and clarity. The course gave me presentation tips on how to prepare and deliver a message and ensure this was using the most effective means to get my message across and make an impact.

“Our team leaders found the training to help build confidence and also give an insight into key principles in presentation and learnt many additional communications skills. Employee engagement, change and being able to seek views of employees are essential in ensuring our manufacturing facility continues to be ahead of our competition and the training supports this aim”.

Through Train the Trainer, staff responsible for training are now up-skilled and awarded external certification, giving in-house trainers greater confidence while providing the company with an invaluable, cost effective support network.

Benefits for the sector

Paul Coffey, Northern Ireland Director at Proskills, says: “It has been a challenge for our partner employers to release individuals to attend these training courses in the current economic environment but those who have attended will be bringing back tangible benefits into their business. We now have a network of accredited trainers in our sector, which is a fantastic step on the journey of achieving increased productivity through a highly skilled workforce”.

Another positive move in the past few months has been the changes made to the qualifications framework in the UK, which aims to raise education and skills levels by making the existing qualifications framework simpler to understand and use. This new modular structure of qualifications, which is being introduced across the UK, offers employers and learners greater choice on the right qualification for their needs, closer alignment with what they actually do at their place of work and more flexibility to construct the right learning pathways that suit the learner and the needs of the business. In addition, it gives the ability for employers to get their high quality in-house training nationally accredited.

We have all heard that addressing the skills shortages in the workforce is the key to business development and performance but addressing skills gaps, training needs and employee development all need to be in line with business objectives in order to succeed. It is also important that individuals have the flexibility to be multi skilled in their fields. Skills that are transferable across a business are proving essential tools in business and staff sustainability.

Terry WattsBased at Proskills UK.

About the author

Terry Watts is Chief Executive of Proskills UK. A chemistry graduate from Bristol University, he joined the IT Industry in 1983. A 14-year career in IBM provided a basis for all-round business experience and was followed by four years at a management consultancy, time at a start-up dot com business and four years at e-skills NTO as Deputy CEO. He joined Proskills in 2005. Terry Watts can be contacted at: terry.watts@proskills.co.uk