Management and leadership programme meets demand of manufacturing supply chain

By Black Country Skills Factory
schedule11th Aug 15

In April this year, the Black Country Skills Factory launched a programme of 12 innovative bite-sized and accredited leadership and management courses to address the lack of operational management and leadership skills in Black Country manufacturing supply chain SMEs.

The development of the training is funded by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills through their UK Futures Programme (UKFP) – ‘Management and Leadership in Supply Chains and Networked Organisations’.

Programme success

To date, 5 of the 12 one-day modules have been delivered to 54 participants from manufacturing supply chain companies. Of the 16 different companies engaged, two thirds of participant bookings were from SMEs.

Modules concentrated on a blend of practical management and leadership skills including: Basic Employment Law, Managing Health & Safety as an Operational Manager/Leader, Control of Quality in the Workplace, Communication Skills and Lean.

As part of the course accreditation; modules were assessed, internally verified and passed to the accreditation body Open College Network West Midlands for final verification. 100% of delegates assessed have achieved Level 3 accreditation.

Participant feedback from courses to date has been excellent; with some delegates citing the training being held at leading UK manufacturers such as Thomas Dudley Ltd, Ansaldo NES Ltd, ZF Lemforder UK Ltd and UTC Aerospace Systems Ltd, to be one of the main incentives for booking:

“The course being delivered at an engineering company and the opportunity to network with like-minded people working at a similar level in the same sector, is a real positive and unique element that attracted me to these courses.” (Richard Sims, Senior Production Engineer, Eurac Group).

Courses run until December 2015 and places are going fast reflecting sector demand for this type of training. We have taken a number of bookings for the 12 courses and currently have participants on waiting lists where courses are fully booked.

Of the 7 remaining courses, there are few spaces left as a number of companies have increased bookings following positive feedback from their delegates who attended earlier courses and the appeal of the multiple bookings discount offered to companies by the Skills Factory on launch.

What’s next for the UKFP?

Soft Skill Coaching – the first coaching session takes place in August 2015 at Phoenix Calibration & Services Ltd.Two innovative coaching programmes will be on offer to delegates, comprising a mixture of face-to-face and telephone/Skype sessions depending on where they are located.

Additional course dates – based on the uptake of courses since April 2015, it has confirmed there is high demand for this type of training within the Black Country manufacturing supply chain. To sustain this demand, the Skills Factory is proposing to re-run some of the more popular leadership and management course topics from January 2016.

Discover more

Course bookings and enquiries can be made via 01384 471163 or www.blackcountryskillsfactory.co.uk/courses

For further information on the project visit www.blackcountryskillsfactory.co.uk and follow on Twitter @BCSkillsFactory