December 21, 2007 - In July the Government produced its response to Lord Leitch’s review of skills. The core premise of the report, “World Class Skills”, is that a more highly-skilled workforce is the key to achieving higher productivity, greater competitiveness and enhanced profitability across all organisations and all sectors. It goes on to outline the practical reforms that it will introduce to spark off the ‘skills revolution’ and close the skills gap at all levels. And with £290 million available to fund 161,000 new NVQs in the logistics sector in the next two and a half years there is plenty of incentive.
The Advanced Modern Apprentice scheme has a big part to play in this learning revolution. Apprentices are up to 14% more productive than other comparable employees who have not completed an apprenticeship. And the net present value for an advanced modern apprenticeship is £17 for every £1 of public sector expenditure. This is an excellent return on investment. An Apprenticeship allows facilitated learning, with a high level of one to one support, delivered at the place of work. Briggs Equipment, the UK’s sole distributor of Cat® Lift Trucks, is the only company in the materials handling industry that has designed and runs its own in-house fork Truck Maintenance Apprentice Scheme. Peter Fanning, director of Human Resources at Briggs Equipment, comments, “The shortage of skilled workers across the materials handling sector is a major concern. As an industry, we must take responsibility for the training of the next generation of engineers, and who better to train them than the experts of today.”
Its award winning Advanced Modern Apprentice scheme, which has an annual intake of 10 apprentices and 30-40 apprentices in total, includes both Level 2 and Level 3 NVQs. Over the four years’ the apprenticeship delivers a programme that is high relevant to Briggs’ business and produces a highly skilled, rounded engineer with a clear pathway for progression.
Briggs Equipment has a vision of being its customers’ first choice of service provider and this means having people who can deliver that vision. Whilst today’s workforce is now more mobile than ever (nearly half the UK workforce only stay with the same company for 5 years or less), Briggs is realistic. Its philosophy is that people should leave the company better skilled than when they joined. Peter Fanning adds, “Culture is crucial to us as a learning organization. Briggs has a very open culture, which encourages strong employee engagement and people become very open to learning. The culture makes it easier for them to learn, because learning involves an element of risk and change. The company is also willing to think broadly about skills development, which encourages creativity.”
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Briggs Equipment UK
Briggs Equipment UK Ltd is a leading materials handling service provider and sole distributor of Yale Materials Handling products in Great Britain. Providing a wide range of equipment for a broad customer base, Briggs provides innovative, tailored and cost effective solutions on a nationwide basis. With its headquarters and national support centre in Cannock, Briggs people assist and advise in the delivery of long term solutions that enable customers to develop more efficient and results driven businesses.
Media contact:
Tiffany Clowes
Changeworks Communications
T. + 44 (0) 1785 247588
E.
Company Contact:
Scott Bullock
Briggs Equipment
Orbital Way
Cannock
WS11 8XW
T: 01543 430 455
W: www.briggsequipment.co.uk
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