Training
Can you afford not to train your staff?
The main reason for training your staff is to satisfy compliance issues and stay up-to-date on the latest rules and regulations. Training is also very much in the limelight for 2008 with the Government pushing the issue to businesses of all sizes with the overall aim of increasing the skills base across the UK. Training can help businesses improve their productivity and competitiveness by ensuring that employees have the right skills to do the best job. In this section we aim to give you, our members, an intelligent signpost to help you define ways to make the best possible use of the resources available to you.
Qualifications:
There are qualifications available for all ages, levels of experience and types of retail business. To help you understand the range of qualifications, the Skillsmart Retail Skillsmap shows everyone, both inside and outside the industry, what skills are needed to work in retail and how to map their way through the sector. Also available is a leaflet explaining the different types of qualification.
Click here to go to the Skillsmap: http://www.skilsure.net/skillsmart/Modules/skillsmart/chart.php?job_id=23
Qualifications and job roles leaflet:
qualifications leaflet
Where to go for help:
Convenience Store Simulation Course;
The simulation workshop provides an action-charged, team-based, hands-on training experience and avoids longwinded speeches and complicated training manuals. Best of all, everyone from beginner to MBA level
can benefit with realistic problem-solving concepts.
The workshop dynamically encapsulates general management principles, strategic realignment, operations and merchandising strategies, investments and personnel management.
For more information or to book a place on the next course click here.
Skillsmart Retail;
Skillsmart Retail is is the skills sector council which are which are licensed by the Secretary of State for Education and Skills. There are 25 Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) and Skillsmart is the Retail SSC. Each SSC is an employer-led, independent organisation that covers a specific sector across the UK. Skillsmart Retail works to support the needs of small and independent retailers by providing them with access to practical and affordable training solutions, all of which are aimed at providing real value to a business. Whether it’s increasing productivity, improving staff retention or reducing wastage, all the skills-related products and services are designed to improve your business and ultimately increase your bottom line. Click here to go to the Skillsmart Retail website for more information.
Train to Gain;
If your business is to be successful you need to compete, and to compete you need to train your employees.
For businesses, getting the right skills advice is essential to choosing the best and most appropriate training. Train to Gain helps you to do this by using experienced skills brokers who can:
- offer free impartial and independent advice to businesses
- match any training needs identified with training providers
- ensure that training is delivered to meet business needs
One of the key goals of the service is to make sure that both the training and the skills advice are impartial, flexible, responsive, and offered at a time and place to suit businesses. This marks a cultural shift in how skills training will be delivered, and will ensure that the delivery of training is much more responsive to the needs of every business.
Train to Gain is one of the initiatives from the Learning and Skills Council and is funded by the Government..
Visit the Train to Gain website for more information.
FAQ's:
What public funding can I get, and when?
The Government will provide public funds through the Train to Gain programme to help employers deliver the Skills Pledge in England. The core commitment is that the Government will pay for the costs of training in basic literacy and numeracy skills through the Skills for Life programme, and training for unqualified employees to achieve their first full Level 2 qualification (equivalent to five good GCSEs).
Through Train to Gain, the Government will also help employers develop a wider training programme to meet their full training needs, including help with Level 3 qualifications, access to the Apprenticeships programme, additional and higher level qualifications for staff who already have some qualifications, and management and leadership development for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). But employers will be expected to pay their share of that wider training programme, reflecting the benefits to them and their staff. The skills broker will help to sort out what costs each employer needs to pay.
There is a fixed budget of public funds set for Train to Gain each year, which we must not overspend. So the Government’s job is to manage the programme so that we live within the annual budget. The Government is making Train to Gain a priority: the budget for 2007/08 is over £400 million, and will rise to around £650 million in 2008/09 with further increases projected in later years. So we are budgeting for rapid expansion to meet demands arising from the Skills Pledge. But if demand for the programme risks outstripping the budget for that year, we may have to phase the delivery of training to meet new needs.