“The training we do is a big commitment, but when we decided this was the way we wanted to go four years ago. I undertook an NVQ A1 assessor’s qualification, which was very interesting. I was also the only trainee from a company this size - others were from big operations with a turnover of about £10 million a year. I am affiliated to Rodbaston College so I can train my staff in house, which saves time and means they do things our way.
Our business has accelerated quite a bit over the last 12 months and we’re doing well by being busy, though the fencing industry as a whole isn’t the same. Trade has been difficult and rates of pay aren’t as good.
We are looking to the future but a lot of other people in the industry aren’t doing this training. We have always trained our people in house - we wanted our staff to do things right.
When we send staff on site they do a crack job and don’t cut corners. But it also costs us more to operate as well, making our expenses higher than our competitors. For the NVQs alone we are investing around £6000 next year.
In 12 months, everyone in my yard should have their NVQ2 and we might have new people starting their training too. Thanks to training my staff will be confident, work well as a team and boost out reputation. They appreciate we are investing in them and like getting another qualification.
I’ll also be interested now in employing anyone pre-qualified or willing to do the NVQ, so we can advertise that we are 100% qualified. And personally, if I can find the time, I would like to do an AutoCAD course through the University of Bolton so I could do drawings on the computer.”
