Find out how Train to Gain could boost your profits post Budget

As the end of the fiscal year fast approaches, companies across the UK are taking stock and discussing new strategies for the year ahead. Now that all of last year’s paperwork has been tied up and Darling has delivered The Budget, it’s the perfect time to reassess what it will take to make 2008/2009 profitable in a less-than-encouraging economic climate.

The first thing business leaders need to establish is how much they are willing to invest to get the returns they are looking for, particularly when it comes to their workforce. Research from the Learning and Skills Council shows that 2 out of 3 businesses have a budget for training but how many of them use it effectively and how many are making the most of Government driven schemes? The expansion of Train to Gain, as announced by Government in November 2007, means that businesses of all sizes can access training at even more levels so previous barriers of time and money are no longer applicable excuses in the coming year. But what will this mean for businesses in real terms and how can investing in staff boost profits?

The Learning Skills Council answers all of your questions, offering exclusive advice and information about how investing in your workforce can benefit your business. Join Jaine Clarke, Director of Skills for Employers at the LSC, Robin Clarkson, Prevista Assistant Director of The Skills Brokerage Association and marketing manager Jennifer Allen from the London based Hardy Group as they discuss training and how it can benefit your company on a financial level and in other areas of your organisation.

Jaine Clarke, Robin Clarkson and Jennifer Allen join us live online on Wednesday 26th March at 3pm to discuss the benefits of investing in your workforce.

To find out more about Train to Gain call 0800 015 55 45 or visit www.traintogain.gov.uk

H: Jayne Constantinis, host
J: Jaine Clarke, Learning and Skills Council
JA: Jennifer Allen, Hardy Group
R: Robin Clarkson, Prevista

H: Hello and welcome to the Business Show, I'm Jayne Constantinis. Now as the end of the financial year fast approaches, companies across the UK are taking stock and discussing new strategies for the year ahead. It's said that the most important asset to any business is its people, so here to tell us about a service called “Train to Gain” are Jaine Clarke from the Learning and Skills Council, marketing director Jennifer Allen from the Hardy Group and Robin Clarkson from Prevista, a skills broker. Thank you very much for coming in to talk to us. Jaine, can I begin by asking you to tell us about the service and what prompted it?

J: Well very simply put, Train to Gain is the government's flagship service which is designed to help businesses of all sizes, in all sectors to get the training advice and support they need to succeed, so it's very simple to access, simple telephone number or website address, and basically somebody comes in and helps you look at what your business needs are and how training can make a difference to your business

H: And it's free?

J: Certainly the advice that's available through Train to Gain is free

H: Yes

J: To go through a skills broker like Robin and the support that's available there too is – we can support all sorts of training and development activity, some of which is supported by the government, subsidised by the government, others of which the employer would invest in themselves

H: So Robin, you're a skills broker, that's not a term I've come across before – explain a little bit to us about what your role is exactly?

R: Ok, well with the word broker you probably think of an insurance broker to begin with and away you'd go and look at getting the best deal for what you're after, which is your insurance needs. Well our skills brokers do a similar kind of service, and what they do is they will go in and see an employer, usually on their premises to get a feel about what the business is about, at a time to suit, so we do out of normal office hours as well. So a broker would come down and really just talk and make the employer aware of the benefits and different areas of skills development that they can look into. We can conduct an organisational needs analysis and really drill down, and of course to understand the skills needs of the business we have to understand the whole needs of the business. That will generally take no more than about an hour but we can come and visit the employer as many tines as they so wish, and so a larger employer for instance may want more support over a period of 6 months, because they might have 100 staff, whereas a smaller organisation can come in and spend an hour doing that assessment. And it doesn't stop there of course, because then we go off and find the most suitable solutions for the employer and the learner's employees of course

H: And of course the crucial thing here is the word “impartial” isn't it, that's where the broker comes in? But you're not pushing any one type of training?

R: Very much so, and that's one of the new elements of the Train to Gain service. Our brokers are completely impartial, it's a completely demand-led service and so we're there to listen to what the employer wants

H: Now we have an actual real life case study here which is brilliant, Jennifer you've been through this process, and I was curious to hear that the service is applicable to businesses of all shapes and sizes. Tell us a little bit about your business and what skills you've achieved?

JA: Well in terms of my organisation we're a contract publishers, so we've got a small nucleus of full time employers and we actually have many freelancers that we actually manage and put to certain projects, and in terms of training, it's vital that we get the actual nucleus of the employers that are in our company, the London office, to be fully – you know – qualified and train –

H: And how many is that nucleus?

JA: There's actually 10 –

H: 10, ok

JA: Sort of 30 freelancers

H: Yep

JA: So it's really important that all of – every employee has the right amount of skills for the different types of work that they do

H: And you were aware, were you that there were some skills gaps, you had that moment of thinking ah we need some help but we don't know where to get it?

JA: Massively, I mean before sort of Train to Gain we went to sort of different training organisations that of course are selling their own sort of packages, but you know they're sales people so we were going to spend our training budget with them, which might not necessarily be the right one for our organisation. With Train to Gain we found that they really do come in, they're very impartial, they look at all the employees, where their skills gaps are, and really fit a number of different skills programs to that, and then it's for us to then decide which ones we feel are right for us and also fit into our time frame and also our work which is key because obviously if you've got big projects you know as managers you cannot let your staff go off and do training because they need to be there to do the business

H: Sure

JA: And Train to Gain does that very effectively

H: Yes. I mean is that – Jaine – the experience of a lot of businesses that you deal with and now help, that they have gone out into the marketplace looking for assistance and found it to be lacking?

J: Yes I think the experience is probably that for some businesses that's worked fine, they've got a good relationship with the local college or with a training provider, but it hasn't worked for all businesses and it certainly has been difficult for small businesses, and that's why skills brokers are really important. I mean indeed things like the telephone number and the website are also important in terms of helping small businesses get the help they need quickly. I think the point that Jennifer was making about the training being really flexible has also been a really strong message back to us from employers saying that one of the real benefits of Train to Gain is that much of the training takes place in the employer's premises, at a time that suits the employer, training at any time of the day to fit in with the employer and the individual, and that makes a big difference because you don't have to reschedule completely the work, the projects that you're involved in as a small business, and as Jennifer says that's really important to small businesses – making really good use of time

H: I mean you clearly in your business identified the value of training, what – just Robin give us a brief rundown of what businesses gain from having better qualified and better trained staff? Sounds obvious but you know – spell it out for us!

R: It is, the benefits are endless. You can look at – you know what I mean, from an employer's perspective they want to be ensured that they're ahead of the competition, that they have good staff morale, good staff retention, that they're more productive and more efficient in the way that they do things, and actually improving the skills of the workforce is the most important thing to actually do and it's one of those things that once you start developing the skills in your workforce you start to see immediate benefits from it, and that investment, whether it be through funded provision, part-funded or paid, is something that really comes through. And I think there's a survey recently of over 1000 and they said that at the end of it 27% of those people that had completed the training said they were more valuable within their role, and that leads to career progression

H: And more valued, feeling of value –

R: And more value – absolutely, absolutely

H: Yes. So Jennifer we've got you there, you've identified in your business that you need some training – were you feeling a bit fed up, did you feel that you weren't fulfilling your potential? What was going through your mind?

JA: I don't think so much that, certainly being a graduate myself my career is vital to me and what I want to do, and I have a certain career path and development that I wish to do, and I felt that probably it was hard work, and so happens there wasn't that support system within my organisation to develop what I wanted to do, and certainly Train to Gain has allowed me, I me I'm now just about to embark on a management course, level 3 and 4 which is great and that has been subsidised – about £1000 has been put towards that by the government which is great, and that is specific for women which is excellent, because I actually did a dissertation when I was at university about breaking the glass ceiling, to be a product of – I mean I've recently been sort of promoted as well due to my – I did a post-graduate diploma, again 70% of which was funded by the government, so by getting them extra qualifications I've then been promoted to a directorship level, so in effect I wrote a dissertation and 5 years later I'm actually doing it, and that's a proud moment for me and –

H: That's fantastic

JA: And I actually do believe that the option I took to go into a smaller sized organisation hasn't been to detriment because the government have –

H: Yes

JA: In effect said actually we're going to –

H: So I can see the real benefits for you as an individual. How is it benefitted the business that you work for?

JA: I think bottom line retention is key, you know we've got excellent retention of employees, people are very happy in the workplace, you know I've been head-hunted numerous amounts of times, I don't look to go anywhere else because I'm happy in what I'm doing. What we're delivering to our clients, our retention to our clients is excellent, generating new work through existing clients which is great, market penetration strategy, so we've seen a significant change in our business, bottom line and our turnover's increased by 40% so I think that's –

H: So just take us back to the point when you'd seen the broker and they'd made their recommendations. What sort of form does that take, is it different packages of training, or what does that look like?

JA: Yes I mean they basically come to you and as Robin said sort of spend maybe an hour, two hours with you just going through all your needs in terms of your job, what you're looking to do, you know in your own career, and then they tailor different qualifications or training to that, and then you make the decision when you can do it and they send over a schedule which just outlines times and dates, and then you know you can sign a document saying that you're fully on board and you literally go to the training, it's that easy, it really is

H: And what sort of –

JA: Very easy

H: What sort of range of training that you might – training needs that you might look at?

R: It's as – going back to it being a demand-led service, it's exactly what the employer wants, so we will talk to employers, everything from health and safety and other mandatory qualifications and certificates that they may need through to lower level skills, helping people with literacy and numeracy and in English as a second language, through then through to different levels of qualifications and that's from low levels through to kind of level two revision which is around 5 GCSEs, and then going up to kind of a degree level. But we also look at non-accredited and short courses, so for instance an owner / manager of a small business employing 10 people, not interested in going onto a diploma or a degree course, but they know within their skills set that they do need a little bit of help with say some leadership or with disciplinary or with counselling of staff etc. we can actually then go in and source a very bespoke service for them, so it's right across the board. Qualifications are a huge element of what we talk about, and that's because of the funding that's available through the Learning Skills Council, but it's also empowers the individual, as we've heard from Jennifer, which in the end equates to bottom line profit, and that's what the business owner wants at the bottom line as well

H: I mean it's fantastic, it's like having a whole lot of highly paid management consultants and marketing and PR people all there at your disposal, isn't it?

R: That's exactly it and all our brokers as well come from a variety of different backgrounds, we have sector specialists in there who know the sectors that you work in, we have people that have been Investor in People assessors so they're very much into quality, and all of them are going through a professional standard, and all brokers go through that, and it's the only professional standard in the country that relates to this type of work because it's so new and it's so kind of – as Jaine said – it's a flagship for the Learning Skills Council

J: And I think that's really important, the quality of the service is really important to us within the Learning and Skills Council, to ensure that we've got customers, employers and individuals who are saying we really valued this experience, it's made a difference to us, to me as an individual or to me and my business, and that they're then in a position where they're happy to recommend Train to Gain to other employers. I mean that's eventually what it's all about, is about more and more employers, accessing Train to Gain, doing something about skills in terms of how it will help their business to grow and to develop, and I think that quality is so key to ensuring that that happens, the experience needs to be a really good one, so that that employer is prepared to tell his friends, her friends –

H: Sure

J: That it's a really good service

H: And of course particularly relevant as the moment as we – so we hear – enter a period of economic downturn because the market – all markets – are going to be increasingly competitive aren't they? I mean did you see in your business that it gave you a competitive edge, I mean you had some really tangible results from it?

JA: No certainly I think, you know in – not just because of what's happening in the economy now, even if we were, you know doing great, all organisations must be investing in your employees. I mean my organisation is a – you know – is an English company, we have English UK based printers that we do sales for, so they're competing against the emerging markets in India, China – it is our responsibility to be competitive and to be able to provide a service that is better than what they are offering

H: But you can point to a – what increase in your turnover was it?

JA: Up to 40% in terms of our accounts that we've won and in terms of our turnover, so – you know retention is key, I think if employees are happy in their workplace. You know I could have gone to many global organisations, I haven't, I haven't done that for I can get everything I want in terms of my career and I'm having a bottom line impact every day in my job and I think that's really really important

H: And I think that very tangible, deliverable to use one of our consultancy words is really important isn't it because businesses need to see the value, they need to understand how it's actually going to benefit the business, because it is a commitment isn't it and we're talking – of course it's not aimed specifically at small businesses, but they feel it more don't they, and in fact we've got a question here that's come in from Kevin, who says “I run a small consultancy. I'm worried that if my staff get too qualified they might go and work for the competition, so I'm going to lose out.” Is that something that you hear time and time again from your clients?

R: That “if I train them they'll leave” – is a statement that we do hear all the time and I think it's down to look at if people are coming to your business for the training, you're doing something right. If they're leaving they're leaving for another reason and through the Train to Gain service we can help look at the whole elements of the business, and it might be to do with the career prospects. It might be down to the old bottom line of paying the salary, but it will be something else, it's not the training that is making them leave, that's attracting them, so it's actually looking at other elements of the business and looking at gaining support and advice and guidance to see where we can show that when sales people train they see a career prospect within that which is just as Jennifer has been talking about, and that can be instilled into that business's growth

JA: Yes I think that's key from – I mean I haven't had a job interview for 5 years but friends of mine that are graduates have all said that when they've gone for job interviews, salary is kind of – you have an expectation of what you want, but then it's “well what training am I going to receive?” and I certainly, from my friends' points of view, if you go to an organisation that are not pro training and they don't want to invest a level of money into you, you're not really interested in going to them. And I think the point of Train to Gain is, the training that my organisation has done would have cost – had we gone to private people – maybe £20,000

H: Wow

JA: In reality it hasn't, it's cost hardly any anything and that is due to Train to Gain and I think for me being here today that's what I can sort of communicate that actually training is key, but it actually will not cost your organisation, you know in terms of profit, your profits will increase

H: Yes, sure

JA: You might have a level of investment but the actual return on that will be massive

H: Is that the other barrier that you find – businesses, they're worried about people leaving, they're worried about the time off the job, out of the office and are they worried that it's going to cost an arm and a leg?

J: I think that's an initial concern is the cost, but I think the surveys that we've done with employers, and the research that we've done with employers tells us that ultimately it's about ensuring that the investment they make in terms of the time and the money, that that is going to make a difference to their business, so at the end of the day I think they're prepared to invest and all of the evidence from Train to Gain shows not just what the government is investing but what those individual businesses are investing in training as well, often in partnership with the government. But the important thing for employers is that it will make a difference for their business, a positive difference to their business. They're prepared to pay, if it will make a difference. If it's not going to make a difference it's wasted

H: They may as well not bother, yes. I hope Lucy from London was listening because we've also got a question in from her, she runs a small mail order business, only four of them, always up against it (time wise, I think) – “can I really afford the time to seek out training schemes for the team?” Well of course it's not going to take a huge amount of time

R: No

H: if she comes to you because you'll do the hard work for her

R: Absolutely that's why a skill broker's there, so if she can release an hour or two hours, and it could be a breakfast meeting, it could be after working hours

H: Really?

R: Our brokers do work into the evenings as well

H: Ah that's interesting

R: It's flexible; it's to suit the needs

H: Yes

R: Then we will basically do that work for her, so we will guide her through the process, ask all the important questions, come back with some suggestions and some solutions and within there we'll discuss “how long is it going to take, what's the duration, how many days release doing it, can they do it at weekends, can they do it at the evenings? We had for instance a manufacturing organisation that wanted assessments done at 4am in the morning at the end of a shift. We went through a few providers before we found it, but we did find a provider that understood that business, and therefore arranged for assessors to go in at 4am at the end of a shift

H: And of course it sounds to me that the other crucial thing is you're looking at the whole business

R: Indeed

H: You're looking at their business of objectives, you're looking at their – what budget they might have available, because every business is completely different, and time and availability is one of them so they're not just going out and getting a kind of off-the-peg package

R: No

J: No

H: One-size-fits-all – it's really tailored to their needs

R: It is very tailored to the needs of that business. We work within – if it's a qualification it works within the framework, but the hows and the means and the wheres that can be delivered, and the different styles and different methods are – can be tailored to the needs of those individuals

J: And I think that tailoring is really important so it could be that we'll – the broker or the training provider is working with the employer over a training program that will take a year, two years even if you start to look at –but it could also be something that's very short, very quick that needs addressing now, and that's right for the business and therefore that's what the broker or the provider will deal with, and go back to the business later on to look at what else they can do to support, and I think that telling is just as important I think as the impartiality

R: I think one of the tell-tale points of that as well is the number of people that have dipped their toe in the water and maybe just done a short course or just got one person – and then afterwards have come back and said –

H: Back

R: That was really valuable, I've seen the benefit, I want more

H: Well thank you very much for coming in to talk to us about the service, it sounds fantastic. When my business is big enough I'll definitely be giving you a call. And thanks to you for joining us. If you'd like to find out more about Train to Gain then you can give them a call on 0800 015 5545 or of course you can visit the website which is traintogain.gov.uk. Thanks for watching, see you again soon. Bye

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