SKILLS & TRAINING
Training the train makers
Q
ualitrain began life as a training provider serving engineering and manufacturing companies in the East Midlands, but notable success has allowed rapid growth and Qualitrain now supports businesses as far afi eld as Northumbria and Bristol, with rail industry clients strongly represented. Indeed the company has a permanent base within Bombardier’s Derby site.
Correctly identifying the real needs of a business, and responding imaginatively and vigorously to them, have helped us build lasting partnerships with our rail industry customers, which has been great for both parties.
Off-the-shelf training packages are rarely worth the time and effort. But if you have properly understood where a business can derive real benefi t, you can develop a training strategy of genuine worth. Then it becomes a matter of delivering it in a meaningful, sustainable and even enjoyable way.
Our business improvement clients, for instance, have typically achieved savings of around £10,000 per trainee – hundreds of thousands of pounds, therefore, in many cases. And since people keep asking us back, we assume they’re not fi nding what we do too painful!
Core issues at BTRS and Bombardier At BTRS,
Richard Bates, second from left, at the Employer Engagement Awards 2010, where Qualitrain was recognised for its achievements in ‘exceptional trainee retention’.
For the last six years, engineering and business improvement training providers Qualitrain have been working with Bombardier, BTRS and FirstGroup to enhance workplace skills, cut costs, and improve health and safety. Qualitrain’s MD Richard Bates explains more.
BTRS operations manager Steve Slater said: “We were delighted with the way Qualitrain met the challenge. They developed a series of practical tests that could feed performance data back to management, so improvements could be made accurately with no overlap or wastage. In my opinion they are a fi rst-class supplier who really know their business and are tenacious in seeing a project through successfully.”
Also at Derby, Qualitrain assisted Bombardier Transportation with business improvement training linked specifi cally to the company’s extensive in-house training programme. Qualitrain worked with Bombardier’s own trainers to ensure the high standards set throughout the business were successfully mapped across into all training activities, with no fewer than 170 managers passing through the programme. At Level 2, the pass rate was 100%, and the programme has since moved to Level 3.
Rolling success at First Great Western
Qualitrain was asked to assist with a pilot scheme that had already been put in place by the manager at First Great Western’s (FGW’s) St Philip’s Marsh maintenance depot to promote and improve health and safety within an inevitably hazardous working environment.
Qualitrain has implemented
business improvement training for frontline team leaders, in addition to developing a core competency programme which included PMO (Performing Manufacturing Operations) at Level 2 for the entire workforce. This was a large-scale training project dependant on close working partnerships between BTRS,
Cambridge and West Nottinghamshire colleges.
Then, when BTRS had a sudden requirement to employ 300 new staff, Qualitrain was called on to develop a single-week training course covering all the key processes of building electrical wiring looms.
44 | rail technology magazine Apr/May 14
We were able to formalise and fund the initiative by applying business improvement techniques within FGW, deploying the apprenticeship route of Improving Operational Performance as a vehicle, but ensuring the delivery would meet FGW’s specifi c needs.
Qualitrain and Lincoln,
The programme quickly achieved excellent results, with the St Phillip’s Marsh depot reporting a signifi cant reduction in accidents (an all-time low, in fact), which was recognised in the winning of a health and safety award in 2013. Indeed, the scheme was so successful that, long before these results were reported, the training was rolled out to the six other FGW depots, so that valuable improvement activities are now under way from Old Oak Common in London to Penzance.
Entering the Dragons’ Den at First Capital Connect
Impressed by what had been achieved at FGW and by the extent to which Qualitrain’s staff had become accepted as part of the FGW ‘family’, the management team at First Capital Connect (FCC) invited Qualitrain to develop a training programme within their two depots in Hornsey and Bedford.
FCC has invested heavily in improvement activities, including the appointment of a new continuous improvement manager and a commitment to a really extensive training programme. Over 450 candidates are now involved, and the response has been greater than anyone could have foreseen. The candidates have shown fantastic business improvement acumen and a fabulous level of enthusiasm, which is rare to see at such an early stage. Re-using the successful strategy fi rst deployed at FGW, the apprenticeship in Improving Operational Performance has allowed the FCC staff the opportunity to gain new skills and apply them in real-life situations over a period of time.
As a starting point we challenged each team to propose improvement ideas in a ‘Dragons’ Den’ scenario. The management team has also been challenged to assess the potential outcomes and close-out each idea, with descriptive feedback for non-starters, or assign actions to and oversee those projects that will hit pre-agreed objectives and targets.
There is now a wealth of very visible, positive activity, driven not only by the training and qualifi cations brought by Qualitrain, but by a structured and supportive approach from the company – the perfect example of how high-value working partnerships allow training to bring high- value results.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
T: 01773 590 671 W:
www.qualitrain.co.uk
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