The success stories that come from studying City & Guilds qualifications would not be possible without the sterling efforts of those people who teach and train.

Bank on training

Lloyds TSB worked with City & Guilds in the early 1990s to accredit its own internal programme, Certificate in Customer Services (CICS). The
initiative was driven by the realisation that customers were not just people making telephone enquiries, queuing in local branches or at ATMs but in fact could be anyone a Lloyds TSB employee interacted with - internally as well as externally.

Lloyds TSB Accreditation Manager in Group IT & Operations, Nikki Bryan is based in Brighton and in 2001 introduced the CICS programme into card operations. 'We had two sites in Brighton and Southend that were then amalgamated into Group Operations.

'We thought then about going down the NVQ route as it would recognise the hard work the verifiers and assessors were putting into the programme, as well as the candidates,' she says. Through the University of Lloyds TSB, the decision was made to start offering employees an NVQ in Customer Service.

Heading up a small team of four, Nikki now travels around the UK visiting the 15 sites currently working with the programme. She offers Levels 2, 3 and 4 in Customer Service, recently adding Business Administration to her portfolio.

Nikki and her team often start at six in the morning to travel up the motorways to assess, verify or coach somewhere in the UK. 'It is often challenging but nevertheless rewarding'.

'Since 2002, we've had 860 people take NVQs with us,' says Nikki who currently has 203 people on her books taking level 2, 34 taking level 3, and five taking level 4. 'We've had very positive feedback, not just because the qualification is voluntary but also because the NVQ makes them think about their role and about going that extra step to help the customer.'

'People are more aware of the need for customer service these days and that while they might be a small cog in a big machine, they're still important. That holistic understanding is so crucial - that people start to look at the big picture when it comes to themselves and the work place. We've helped employees grow in confidence, to raise their profile and go up the next level in banding. That's a good feeling.'

 

Care of the community

Richenda Yates owns Accessing Care Employment Ltd (ACE), a small North Manchester based training company specialising in training social care workers and carers.

With the Care Standards Act in 2000 requiring that carers working with vulnerable adults have appropriate qualifications, Richenda and her colleague Janet Tonge hoped that ACE could help the six million people associated with unpaid care in the UK when they set up the company in 2005.

Offering training in NVQ Health and Social Care Level 2, 3 and 4, the company has gone from strength to strength in a diverse and under privileged community.

'Our selling point is that we don't labour the NVQ - if people are taking time out, they don't want it to be a chore. I've found the whole process brilliant,' says Richenda, who believes that the evidence-based nature of the level 2 NVQ has made the qualification process more palatable for learners.

'When I'm talking to new students, I say that I'm like a driving instructor - they're showing me their skills rather than having to write them up.

'We're skilled enough to know if they've got gaps in their knowledge and practice.' Yvonne Brown is one of Richenda's success stories, completing a Learning for Living course to complement her Level 2 in Caring.

Yvonne is now training for a Health and Social Care Level 4 with Richenda and is starting up her own business, Daily Angels, that cares for the elderly.

'I found the Learning for Living course enlightening and helpful. Richenda puts an enthusiasm into the class that really radiates and she's doing a one-day course with us at Daily Angels to help with team building.'

The fact that a company like ACE has helped Yvonne set up her own business is testament to a strategy that is less about financial returns and more about evaluing, supporting and encouraging learning.

'Even though we've got two other members of staff, Tina and Michelle, we've still got more work than we can handle. We've capped the numbers of people we'll teach as we want to keep the focus and not lose the company's identity. We want learners to think of us in a less formal manner and to realise the value that the award has for them.'