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Company Brochure

What do we offer?

First4Skills supports a vast array of businesses across multiple sectors to deliver nationally-recognised BTEC Apprenticeships in areas such as:

*Restrictions may apply

We recently entered into a partnership with Pearson enabling us to provide BTEC qualifications** in addition to our previous qualifications including Foundation Learning.**SVQ qualifications in Scotland

Why you should consider vocational qualifications for your workforce

Our BTEC Apprenticeships are delivered in the workplace with minimal disruption to the learner’s everyday role through a winning combination of work-based training modules and one-to-one guidance from our team of Training Assessors, ensuring learners are fully supported throughout their qualification. Work-based learning allows employees to put their new skills into practice straight away, meaning your business can immediately reap the benefits.

Retail

Customer Service

Hospitality & Catering

Business & Administration

Team Leading

Management

Warehousing & Storage

Hairdressing

Health & Social Care*

Who is First4Skills?

First4Skills is one of the UK’s leading providers of work-based vocational qualifications, with almost 30 years experience in the delivery of flexible training solutions to both local businesses and multi-site national organisations across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

We have access to government funding which enables us to provide quality funded BTEC Apprenticeships, that will provide a significant contribution towards vocational training. As First4Skills works in partnership with funding bodies, we can assess your employees’ eligibility to qualify for support.

We are one of the only training providers in the UK to offer nationwide coverage. Through our team of over 500 field based Training Assessors we have the scale and scope to support your existing network whether you are a small local business or a national multi-site organisation

Consultative approach – we offer a full assessment and implementation service allowing us to advise on matters such as funding availability and training requirements

Our team of experts can assess the quality of your existing internal training programmes and ‘map’ these to industry standards. This allows us to deliver a bespoke programme of learning incorporating specific elements of your business. Clients already benefiting from this unique service include Brantano and Dixons Retail PLC group

We can maximize your training budget through access to government funding throughout the UK

We can make a positive difference to your bottom line – through a proven track record of raising business performance via the effective delivery of qualifications within both SME and blue chip organisations

We deliver in the workplace – minimising the time your employees need to spend away from their everyday job

We can help you to fulfil your CSR requirements by offering a work experience placement to a young person in your local community through our Foundation Learning programme

Access to ePortfolio – our innovative online learning platform facilitates faster progression through qualifications and gives you a transparent view of learner progress 24/7

Marketing support – our marketing team can work with you to produce bespoke materials to raise internal awareness of training programmes at branch/site level

There are significant advantages of working in partnership with First4Skills:

Why Work With First4Skills?

“Today there are a wide range of Apprenticeships in more than 190 sectors ...but this government still doesn’t think there are enough and even in a climate of cuts has committed additional resources to fund a further

50,000 adult Apprenticeships this year above the level inherited by the previous government, rising to 75,000 by the year 2014-15. That means over 20,000 adults can start an Apprenticeship, and there will be a healthy

tranche of 16-18 year olds too. We want to change the way we value qualifications as a society so that a good quality Apprenticeship has as much status and value as an academic degree.”

Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills

RetailBy 2017, 214,000 retail jobs are expected to be created across the UK as a result of expansion and a further 1.2 million jobs will need to be filled as a result of staff turnover.

The retail qualifications offered by First4Skills are essential for equipping your employees with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in a competitive and changeable retail environment. Our experience ranges from working with small local businesses to major blue chip retailers. Our current clients include Currys, New Look and Brantano.

Designed for those working in a customer facing role, our retail qualifications focus on the importance of excellent customer service and can be applied across all retail sectors. Our portfolio of vocational retail qualifications doesn’t simply focus on selling products or services; effective teamwork, communication and health & safety are all important elements of the programmes on offer.

Customer ServiceAt the beginning of 2009, customer service based roles equated to 7.5% of the UK labour market.

Providing your employees with the best customer care skills means your customers gain a positive impression of both your organisation and your workforce. A vocational qualification in customer service encourages your employees to create and maintain strong, lasting relationships by providing them with the skills they require to compete within a tough, customer driven environment. Some of our customer service clients include Primark and Rowlands Pharmacy.

Designed for those working in a role that incorporates customer interaction on a daily basis, these qualifications also equip employees with a sound understanding of customer service policies within the organisation, foster effective communication skills and gives employees the ability to handle customer queries efficiently.

Business & AdministrationAdministrative and secretarial occupations accounted for 11.4% of UK employment in 2008.

Good, practical business skills are a solid foundation in today’s tough economic climate and can help your workforce remain efficient and competitive. Enhancing the business & administration skills of your employees will improve individual performance whilst increasing overall business productivity. Some of our business & administration clients include HBOS, T-Mobile and The Fragrance Shop.

Our business & administration qualifications are applicable across many business sectors, from retail to banking and are suitable for employees working within an office environment who wish to gain a thorough understanding of the operating policies and procedures within your business.

“In a turbulent economic climate, investing in the skills of the workforce has never been so crucial. Through First4Skills we have been able to support our employees to enhance skills that are specific to their job role so we see the business benefits straight away. This has not only provided support to our in-house training proposition, it also gives us a well needed morale boost in these unsettling times.”

Vicki Brown, National Training Manager, The Fragrance Shop

Market Overview

HospitalityThere are currently around 185,800 hospitality, leisure and travel businesses across the UK. The sector currently employs in the region of 2 million people, accounting for 1 in 14 UK jobs.

First4Skills’ hospitality qualifications range from food processing to hospitality supervision, so you can rely on us to have the expertise to enhance the skills of your entire hospitality team, whatever their specialism. We have experience of working with a vast array of organisations from small sandwich shops to national restaurant chains and some of our current hospitality clients include Frankie & Benny’s, Subway and Chiquito.

Also designed to develop effective communication and customer service skills amongst your workforce, our hospitality qualifications equip learners with the expertise they require to succeed in a highly competitive hospitality market.

Team Leading/ManagementBy 2014, it is estimated that two-thirds of all jobs in England will be held by people with at least Level 3 qualifications.

Advanced vocational qualifications such as team leading and management are vital to the success of any business reliant on commercially aware, forward looking managers. Employers have claimed that during the current economic climate, hiring new managers and leaders is the fourth hardest job role to fill. First4Skills currently works with a number of clients to deliver team leading and management qualifications to their workforce, including BSM and Carphone Warehouse.

First4Skills delivers these qualifications to businesses operating across an array of sectors, from retail to hospitality, equipping employees with the essential skills and qualifications to become great leaders.

Warehousing & StorageThe logistics sector as a whole employs around 6% of the UK’s workforce and it is estimated around 85,000 of these are lacking in the skills required to perform in their job role. The ability to process customer orders and despatch goods swiftly is extremely important in meeting the high demands of today’s customers. These qualifications are designed for people working in a busy warehousing environment and ensures your employees fully understand the importance of safe and efficient transportation and storage of goods, together with being fully compliant with health & safety legislation. Some of our warehousing & storage clients include Fedex, Maplin Electronics and Currys.

“In 2010 Brantano made the decision to start taking apprentices into our business and wanted to use this scheme as a way of developing the right people so that they would become supervisors

and managers of the future. This has given us the opportunity to develop home grown talent and get young people ready for more challenging roles.”

Louise Williams, Training & Development Officer, Brantano

Market Overview

“We have recently entered into an agreement with First4Skills to be our exclusive training provider, choosing to work with them over a number of other providers. As The Restaurant Group is a nationwide chain of restaurants we felt it was important to embrace the opportunity to complete work-based qualifications that complemented

our existing training policies and to make these programmes available to all our employees. In order to make this a reality we needed a provider that could consistently deliver across all our sites – up and down the country. With over 500 Training Assessors, we feel confident First4Skills will meet our expectations and will prove to be number

one in their field.”

John Kelly, Group Trainer, The Restaurant Group

“With First4Skills we have an exclusive provider who can offer nationwide coverage and consistent delivery, giving all our employees up and down the country access to work-based qualifications. First4Skills give us

unrivalled account support along with access to up-to-date management reporting which is totally transparent so we always have visibility of learner progress.”

Boyd Glover, Colleague Development Manager, Dixons Retail PLC group

“What ePortfolio means for us is a more streamlined, more rapid learning experience for our learners. The fact that learners are able to submit evidence electronically in a variety of formats including digital voice recordings and video means that visits with the Training Assessor are now more productive; therefore learners complete their qualification

sooner and ultimately spend less time away from their day-to-day job.”

Craig Downing, Team Leader, HBOS

What Do Our Clients Say?

What employers say about Apprenticeships

Taken from The Learning and Skills Council’s Annual Report and Accounts, July 2009

What our client surveys reveal:

As part of our commitment to delivering training excellence we regularly complete client and learner satisfaction surveys across the UK.

Recent findings concluded:

PLUS The main business benefits listed by employers as a result of investing in work-based learning included:

More than two-thirds of employers believe apprentices have helped them to be a more competitive business

As many as 82% say they rely on their Apprenticeship programme to give them the skilled workers they need for the future

95% of employers agreed that learning received via First4Skills has a direct, positive impact on employee job performance

94% of employers agreed that the quality of learning provision had a direct impact on the business

AND 97% of employers agreed that the qualifications offered by First4Skills are job and industry relevant

Better job performance

Increased staff morale

Increased customer satisfaction

Reduced training costs

9 in 10 adults now believe that learning new skills is a good way of taking control of their future.

Nearly 45 per cent are willing to do all they can to get through the downturn – presenting a big opportunity to the Skills sector.

Government Funding Agency

What Do Our Clients Say?

The Get My First Job ServiceIn line with the government’s commitment to helping all young people stay in some form of training/education post 16, the Get My First Job service has been introduced as a cost effective solution dedicated to giving you access to the very best in 16-18 year old talent. The service operates by offering advice and practical help on recruiting young people into your organisation in the form of apprentices.

No recruitment costs

Access to funding support to cover the BTEC Apprenticeship programme (all apprentices complete this programme as part of their placement)

Cost effective way to recruit new staff – apprentices are paid a regular weekly wage

Apprenticeships take a minimum of 1 year to complete

Access to motivated people who are keen to learn and progress

Learners gain skills and knowledge that immediately benefit your business

Eligibility criteria agreed with employer

Our team advertises vacancy & searches candidate database

Our team pre-screens candidates

Shortlist passed to employer

Employer agrees vacancy

Employer conducts final interviews & offers position to successful

candidate

Select appropriate qualification route

Induction/initial assessment/qualification

planning

Ongoing assessment & progress

review

Individual learning

Get My First Job Service

For your existing 16-18 employees

Celebrate achievement

Why you should consider hiring an apprentice

The Get My First Job Service

“People who do Apprenticeships become ambitious, they’re ‘doers’, the kind of people who will make things happen. These are the qualities I look for in people. Success is all about finding people like this – people who will help make any business grow, especially in times like these. It’s important that employers take Apprenticeships seriously – apprentices make things happen and can help a business grow and thrive.”

Sir Alan Sugar

First4Skills forged a partnership with retail footwear giant Brantano back in 2005 to offer more than 1,750 staff the opportunity to gain an NVQ Level 2 in Retail Skills.

Brantano recently decided to work with First4Skills and EDI (First4Skills’ awarding body) to ‘map’ their existing in-house training scheme with the new Retail Level 2 Diploma. Through the mapping process, EDI devised a training programme to enable staff to extend their six month mandatory in-house training by just three months to achieve a nationally-recognised qualification. First4Skills worked closely with the staff at Brantano to deliver the additional three month training programme which helped employees achieve the qualification while continuing with their everyday job.

Louise Williams, Training Officer at Brantano, said: “At Brantano we are very keen to provide our employees with the best possible training and opportunities that will benefit them during their career at Brantano and beyond. When reassessing our training programme

we wanted to work with an awarding body that had a strong vocational orientation and that completely understood our business and our goals. Our ethos is to nurture our employees’ professional and personal development needs to enable them to work their way up the company to more senior positions; training is a major part of this. Through the process of mapping our training to the national qualifications, we have gained a real perspective on the standards that we should be expecting in terms of operations, customer service and working in retail.”

Nicola Buffham, National Account Manager at First4Skills, commented: “This tailor-made training package will go a long way towards ensuring that all staff at Brantano are fully trained and confident in the role they are delivering. The commitment from Brantano in offering the Retail Level 2 Diploma to its staff shows how seriously it takes customer service and its employees’ personal development. This qualification will not only benefit staff while at Brantano but is an achievement that will be recognised throughout their career.”

Client Case Study

UK funding for Apprenticeships has increased by almost a quarter between 2007/08 and 2009/10, to over £1 billion.

The National Apprenticeship Service

BlacksBrantanoBSMCalvin KleinCarphone WarehouseCurrysEdinburgh Woollen Mill

FedexLaura AshleyManheim EuropeMaplin ElectronicsNew LookPC WorldPrimark

ROC UKRowlands PharmacySCSSubwaySue Ryder CareThe Fragrance ShopThe Restaurant Group

Some of the clients we partner with:

t: 0845 071 9011 e: apprenticeships@first4skills.com w: www.first4skills.com

ESF

First4Skills, Aldford House, Lloyd Drive, Ellesmere Port,

CH65 9HQ

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