Russell believes there is a willingness to collaborate across the industry, and sees it as crucial this continues if skills challenges are to be met successfully. He added that collaboration takes place both on an individual and group level.
“There are some good forums, and I often talk to peers at other companies about best practice; either on the phone or by email. On a slightly higher level there are the national working groups that meet every couple of months and they do a lot of good,” he said.
Russell is due to speak at the Manufacturing Management Show in November about Bentley’s apprenticeship programme. And he believes being evangelical about successes in training benefits everyone.
“When you’ve got a good programme where there’s obvious takeaways and cross-overs that other people can benefit from, it’s massively important that you talk about it,” he continued.
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t look at other manufacturers and look at what other people in learning and development are doing. And when we can take the best parts of the various programmes to help each other it’s vital that we do.”
This is an extract from an interview for a wider feature on skills in manufacturing that will appear in the March edition of Works Management. To see if you qualify for a free subscription or to look at prices for paid subscriptions please follow this link.
To find about more about the Manufacturing Management Show, where Tom Russell will be speaking, follow the link here.
