The government is committed to upskilling the British workforce because it recognises that the UK faces a massive skills shortage. That’s why it’s determined that funding goes to value-added training opportunities. In other words, training should not just involve a tick box exercise; it’s actually all about tools and results.
Because of this, Whitehall supports initiaitives like the Business Improvement Techniques (BIT) funded workforce development programme. BIT is a vehicle for people to understand the principles of lean manufacturing while, at the same time, enhancing the functional skills, and health and safety objectives of employers.
BIT is a nationally-accredited programme with structured learning outcomes. It’s designed around a classroom-based core, but with accreditation only given to those that can demonstrate tangible cost savings, a rise in quality, and morale and cultural improvement that will ultimately lead to progression.
The accreditation itself is a national BTEC Level 2 qualification encompassing five critical elements – a vocational-related qualification in operational management; functional skills (in other words, maths and English); personal learning and thinking; employee rights and responsibilities; and the lean technical certificate (which includes CI, Kaizen and 5S).
This is an exceptionally cost-effective programme. A typical commitment from the employer is to release the learner for 12 classroom days per year; client costs equate to 12 days per learner classroom-based. However, the results are impressive – typical IRR returns in excess of 4:1 in year 1. We also see that 95% of learners are passing their functional skills, a priority both for the government and for enlightened employers.
The BIT programme is available to all SMEs in England and my own company is a recognised subcontractor, taking funding from the colleges to leverage Skills Funding Agency finance. We do this via our college support network to deliver exceptional training with proven practioners. We’ve also built a strong relationship with our college partners to offer clients higher end training and bespoke programmes to develop their total workforce, not just the shopfloor.
We are targeting a 90% success rate, success meaning learners completing the programme and demonstrating their results to gain accreditation.
JTJ has commitments to deliver 2,000+ apprenticeships over the next 12 months with bluechip clients, including Argos, ArrowXL, Cranswick, Warburtons and Grupon Antolin, among many. They are all organisations committed to the development of their workforces to avoid a skills gap. It’s a great example of industry and government working together to overcome a serious challenge.
