European Social Fund in England

Clear solutions to improving staffs skills in Staffordshire

Small and medium sized businesses in Staffordshire are now being offered a free advice service, thanks to Business Training Staffordshire (BTS) Funded through the European Social Fund, BTS works in partnership with - Staffordshire Learning and Skills Council, Business Link, Advantage West Midlands, Chamber of Commerce, all of the Staffordshire Colleges, Universities and approved private training providers - to assist and advise small and medium sized businesses in identifying staff training needs and then sourcing training solutions to suit the requirements.

Aiming to provide training that will increase staff motivation, aid in managing growth and help deal with skills shortages, BTS has already assisted over 1000 companies with their training needs. Within those companies they have helped more than 1200 learners access training to help in their current work and in many cases enable them to gain promotion.

The two case studies below show what kind of assistance has already been provided to small businesses:

Espace Europe

Helen Crooks and Tony Shally started Espace in May 2000. Espace specialises in the import and export of freight within Europe boasting separate operational departments dealing with all Western and Eastern European countries as well as air and sea freight. The business has gone from strength to strength, diversifying into other European markets, growing from 4 to 17 staff and increasing its turnover from £1 million to over £3 million.

Training and developing staff is very important to the organisation and with the assistance of BTS:

• 4 staff have completed short management assessment courses
• 1 member of staff has attended Key Skills for Managing Teams Effectively
• 13 staff have attended an in-house bespoke telephone techniques course
• 1 member of staff has just completed a level 3 Management course and is now hoping to progress to level 4

The on-going training programme has also assisted in the very recent achievement of the Investors In People Award.

Happy Hours Day Nursery

BTS have been extremely successful at assisting the childcare sector with their training needs. One company in particular that has benefited from the BTS service has been Happy Hours Day Nursery based in Uttoxeter and Cheadle. In total the company has had over 30 employees take up training sourced through BTS. Areas of training have included - Basic Food Hygiene, First Aid, Child Protection Course and NVQ's in Playwork

In addition BTS has managed to source funding for a number of the training courses that have been completed and were instrumental in organising a bespoke Baby Practitioner course for the company.

"Always extremely helpful at all times. Business Training Staffordshire has helped us enormously with staff that needed funded courses. It's very much appreciated".

Margeret McBride

Happy Hours Nursery 14th July 2003

For more information, please contact:

Lynsey Cooke, Publicity Officer

Email: lcooke.gowm@go-regions.gov.uk