Member Article

Putting the Employer in the Driving Seat

An employer-led Team Leading Apprenticeship programme steers staff on the road to success.

A successful partnership between Unipres UK Ltd, Derwentside College and NAC Group, has enabled 80 members of staff in Unipres’ Washington plant, to achieve this highly recommended qualification, bringing an invaluable range of skills to enhance their knowledge in the area of ‘Team Leading’.

The benefits of investment

The decision to invest in this group of staff within Unipres was challenging, given the complexity of integrating the training into the different shift patterns along with the general increase on workload, but it has been achieved and the results are already showing. There has been an increase in motivated staff; key skills developed during the course have been used to communicate effectively with individual teams and in some cases, issues have been resolved informally at ‘team level’, creating positive impact in the workplace, so most definitely worth the time and effort invested.

It’s all about the Design

NAC Group, who are an innovative and fast-growing service provider, employ highly experienced Facilitators, who designed a unique delivery model for the Team Leader training, based around an employer/learner centric model. The contextualized classroom sessions enhanced the understanding of the principles of team leading.

Derwentside College said “We want to ensure our learners have access to outstanding opportunities to secure employment and maximise their career potential. We are delighted that this successful partnership with NAC and Unipres is providing employees with the qualifications and experience they need.”

In the heart of it

To maximize a greater level of understanding, as well as developing the programme to relate to the constraints of a typical Team Leader, the NAC’s Facilitators based themselves in the heart of ‘Production’. Here they were able to carry out worked based assessment activities mapped to Unit Amplification which incorporated the full cycle of assessment for learning.

This allowed them to not only observe, but also experience first-hand, the day to day duties of these Team Leaders and sample the environment for themselves.

Frank Kitcher Facilitator at NAC Group said…….

“It was never about new initiatives, it was always about making better use of what is already there and giving credit for experience and knowledge and enhancing the potential for career progression”.

A positive outcome

With an extremely satisfying 98% success rate, Unipres have already identified a group who could potentially be the next cohort aspiring to be Team Leaders.

Some quotes from the learners:

“All tutors in this apprenticeship provided excellent teaching techniques and made it an excellent course to attend”

“Enjoyed the course and have taken away some new skills to use in the work place. Tutors were very good, I enjoyed the classroom sessions with Frank and picked up a few pointers about team management and was able to apply”

At NAC, we are always delighted to hear such positive feedback in relation to our learners and we have no doubt that the 80 successful Team Leaders will share with the next cohort, the benefits they have experienced whilst on this year-long programme.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Christine Bravey .