Transcript
Speaker: Okay, Michelle, your first question is, what are your most popular courses at MTC?
Speaker: So we have a range of really popular courses.
Speaker: The biggest one, I think, still being Excel training.
Speaker: People are always looking to increase efficiencies.
Speaker: And we use Excel quite a lot throughout the workplace.
Speaker: So being able to save a lot of time and it's universal.
Speaker: So there's a huge range of departments within every business that will use it.
Speaker: So that's still one of our most popular courses, as well as other desktops.
Speaker: And then definitely what's seen a massive rise this year as well has been in management and data analytics as well.
Speaker: So we do a lot on Power BI and then a lot of leadership styles.
Speaker: So looking at leadership styles, motivational theories, being able to set objectives and support our accidental managers, so to speak.
Speaker: So that seems to have been the most popular this year so far.
Speaker: Excellent.
Speaker: And what...
Speaker: been most surprising about what courses haven't picked up through the project?
Speaker: Have you had any that you thought were going to be really popular but actually people haven't inquired about them at all?
Speaker: I think we've been, we listened to what our employers wanted before we developed a lot of provision anyway, so we kind of knew what the themes were and we are always talking to our employees, we do a lot of bespoke training
Speaker: I think the only things that I've probably seen less numbers on is some of the IT technical training.
Speaker: But we weren't expecting as many numbers on of those anyway.
Speaker: We don't have as much capacity.
Speaker: But I think because of the cost of some of them courses, people do find that harder to believe that it's true that those could be funded because it's very unusual to see those types of training funded elsewhere.
Speaker: So people are used to paying a lot of money for those courses.
Speaker: So to see that it's funded is still hard to get their heads wrapped around.
Speaker: Once people do and they start access and then they come back again and again.
Speaker: But we've definitely had less on the technical than some of our other provision.
Speaker: Have people that have been on the technical spread the good news that it is fully funded or not?
Speaker: I think it's hard because of your technical environment that you've got.
Speaker: So you've got...
Speaker: your IT department, which might be a small department in a very big organisation.
Speaker: So once they do it, they will do it for their team, but not necessarily anybody else in their organisation would be interested in that type of training.
Speaker: And then you've obviously got your IT support companies who we work with a lot of those anyway.
Speaker: So we're already in quite a lot of communication with those.
Speaker: And we normally deal with the employer directly.
Speaker: So not as much for the IT technical as with some of the other training.
Speaker: The other training, absolutely, we get referrals constantly.
Speaker: You know, such and such has done some training.
Speaker: Can I access the training?
Speaker: You've done some training for this other employee that you're working with and they've taught me about it.
Speaker: We get that all of the time.
Speaker: But with your IT technical, there's less people to do the training than somebody else.
Speaker: And has...
Speaker: People that are asking for courses, are they asking for things that you aren't currently delivering, but you're going to look to deliver for the next year to satisfy demand?
Speaker: Or do you think you've got your offer pretty much right at the moment?
Speaker: I think we've got our offer right, but I think there's definitely scope for being able to diversify a little bit more and looking at the trends for next year.
Speaker: We've just done some annual reviews with employers to talk about the needs that they've got.
Speaker: And we're definitely seeing we want to do more on data analytics.
Speaker: So data modeling, the reason behind looking at data, et cetera, as well.
Speaker: We're doing some different courses on Power BI as well.
Speaker: So one just on visuals and then a more advanced one for people that are looking to progress after.
Speaker: And we're looking at expanding some of the management to include some change management.
Speaker: So although that forms part of one of our workshop days at the minute,
Speaker: I think people want a little bit more in depth on that side as well, because all businesses, certainly since COVID, are going through change always.
Speaker: And it's how to manage that effectively.
Speaker: And then also looking at some developing a little bit more on continuous improvement, lean principles, right first time.
Speaker: Again, it all seems to be back and a lot of it's to do with recruitment.
Speaker: So recruitment at the minute is a nightmare across the board, finding suitably skilled staff.
Speaker: So people, when they have those staff, don't want to lose them.
Speaker: So one, they want to invest in them to make sure it's best.
Speaker: But also, because we don't have staffer capacity in most businesses, efficiency is key.
Speaker: Making sure people can be as productive as they can be and efficient at their jobs so that they can continue to do the work that needs to be done.
Speaker: So looking at that, it's looking at the right first time, looking at map and processes,
Speaker: looking at your data analytics, looking at the desktop applications and how to save time in those areas, but then still looking after our people.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So looking still at the management side, how we support and progression, how we help people feel valued in the work, looking at our own emotional intelligence as well and how we come across to the team to really make an inclusive atmosphere at work as well.
Speaker: So it's about keeping staff happy,
Speaker: but also increasing efficiencies.
Speaker: And that seems to be where we're headed.
Speaker: And have you had any good success stories on that very topic?
Speaker: Have you seen it?
Speaker: Some fantastic success stories, really, really brilliant feedback we're getting continuously from the programme.
Speaker: I mean, the programme itself is brilliant.
Speaker: I've worked on quite a few different ESF or quite a few funded programmes.
Speaker: And this is without doubt the best one that I've worked on to have things that are fully funded,
Speaker: that's just not usual.
Speaker: Usually there's some contribution towards it in some way.
Speaker: And the paperwork's really straightforward.
Speaker: But from our employer's point of view, we've had a really big employer at the start of the programme.
Speaker: We're not doing any external training at all.
Speaker: They had some internal provision.
Speaker: They had two million in their levy pot.
Speaker: That was yet to be touched.
Speaker: So, and they knew they were losing that as well.
Speaker: but they're hesitant to really invest in that at the time.
Speaker: So they started off actually just doing some desktop training.
Speaker: So one-day workshops on desktop, but seeing the efficiencies that they were saving from just doing a one-day workshop.
Speaker: So it was a short amount of time to release.
Speaker: They then started to do some of the management workshops.
Speaker: And again, seeing the actual time and what they were getting back from that investment was
Speaker: has then supported them in doing the apprenticeships now.
Speaker: So they're doing the full longer term programmes.
Speaker: So we're now up to, I think it's 35 apprentices.
Speaker: Team leader, supervisor apprentices that they've put on board.
Speaker: We'll have the next cohort starting in January.
Speaker: Then we'll probably look to do something a little bit more bespoke from both an ESF point of view, looking at the CMI, CMI level three or level five.
Speaker: and apprenticeships from all the aspiring managers to do an aspiring manager programme.
Speaker: We have another one of our employers, a big tech company in the North East, and they've been accessing the training.
Speaker: They've grown really quickly.
Speaker: And with a lot of companies, when they grow quickly, they're progressing the staff and they're promoting the staff, which is brilliant to see and great for the staff members that are working there.
Speaker: But they're not necessarily giving them the training.
Speaker: But the new skills that they need for people management.
Speaker: And this company's recognised that.
Speaker: They've put a huge amount of investment in.
Speaker: They've used the ESF project and trained over 40 managers this year.
Speaker: We've nominated them for an award through Dynamo.
Speaker: Fab.
Speaker: And they've been shortlisted.
Speaker: Excellent.
Speaker: So that's another really good news story.
Speaker: And then I've got another big employer that we've been supporting.
Speaker: And they wanted 100 managers through some training.
Speaker: but they had very specific requirements.
Speaker: And we've had no dropout from that so far as well.
Speaker: So we're hosting an awards ceremony for that.
Speaker: So CMI approved qualifications for them as well.
Speaker: So it has been absolutely fantastic for people.
Speaker: And on a personal level for our delegates, we've seen a huge amount of progression from people as well.
Speaker: So the people that are supporting in their roles,
Speaker: So we had one lady who just did a one day workshop in management and associated unit of credit.
Speaker: She was really struggling to get promoted.
Speaker: So she was going to interviews.
Speaker: She was doing a brilliant job.
Speaker: She was going to interviews and she was being overlooked every time because she didn't have some of the management skills and knowledge.
Speaker: She's done the one day workshop, the unit of credit, embed some of those skills and was promoted.
Speaker: So she actually got accepted on our next interview.
Speaker: And a lot of,
Speaker: people that have given us that type of feedback as well to say how much this program has supported them in their career so it is a really good news story all around.
Speaker: Well that's lovely to hear as well though isn't it that actually investing people companies now investing in their teams is showing progression within the workforce that they're retaining staff that people are generally happier in their workforce it's you know it is a win-win in that respect isn't it?
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: And just the last two questions
Speaker: What have you learned in the last year of being part of this consortium?
Speaker: And are you happy to be a member of the consortium?
Speaker: I am happy to be a member of the consortium, without a doubt.
Speaker: We work really, really closely together.
Speaker: So we meet all the time.
Speaker: There doesn't seem to be that competitiveness of it's my customer, it's your customer.
Speaker: There's none of that at all.
Speaker: It's all about what is best for the company.
Speaker: How can we best support the needs?
Speaker: And we all have that mindset, which is really nice.
Speaker: to work with such a good group of people and the different variety of provision that we've got across the board's fantastic things that I think I've learned on the program is funded training's pretty popular so you need a lot of staff you know so capacity wise and you know again we're no different recruiting staff we probably should have done some of that a little bit earlier at times
Speaker: I've also realised I am one person and I think a lot of our team have had to realise that at some points as well.
Speaker: So I think the biggest thing for us has been capacity.
Speaker: And, you know, none of us like to say no because we always like to help.
Speaker: So we're probably taking on quite a bit where it's given us a headache a little bit later from some long hours and things just to make sure that we get it spot on.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: Have I learned to say no?
Speaker: Probably still not, actually, but I've never learned lessons.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: But no, I think that's the biggest thing, really.
Speaker: I think just we could have probably recruited a little bit earlier.
Speaker: Yeah, and I suppose that's a double-edged sword with ESF funding, isn't it?
Speaker: That you only get it for a finite period of time.
Speaker: And managing staff recruitment and holding on to staff for the length of the contract is
Speaker: It's one of those, you know, it is hard because we only have this fund until the end of 2023 and we want to maximise it and spend it.
Speaker: But we also want the good staff to stay with us until the end.
Speaker: And, you know, unless it's guaranteed roles afterwards, we are always going to find a little bit of drop off, but hopefully we can keep them for the majority of the time.
Speaker: And I think that is the hardest.
Speaker: I mean, we are very fussy.
Speaker: We've got really, really high standards as well.
Speaker: So, you know, when we are interviewing people,
Speaker: we will only take somebody that's going to be right for this program.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, you know, as much as the time's ticking on and it's getting shorter and shorter, we won't change on that stance.
Speaker: They've always got to be right for the team dynamic as well, isn't it?
Speaker: Because, I mean, you can bring somebody else into the team and if they're not right for the team dynamic, actually, it can be more destructive than...
Speaker: And to motivate them and the rest of the team as well.
Speaker: Yeah, it needs to be a right fit.
Speaker: Yeah, you do need a productive staff.
Speaker: And I think actually MTC are working well like that at the moment.
Speaker: So it seems to be good.
Speaker: Oh, yeah, we have a brilliant team, actually.
Speaker: Really good team.
Speaker: And I was so lucky for our trainers.
Speaker: Excellent.
Speaker: Brilliant trainers.
Speaker: Well, thank you very much.
Speaker: And thank you for listening to the Northeast Workforce Skills Podcast.
