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Media

The National Training Awards Press Office will send out press releases following the announcement of the regional finalists, regional ceremonies and the Gala.
The Press Office will also be happy to provide comments from spokespeople at The National Training Awards and Government for you to include in your own releases.
And don't forget to include any press releases on your website, intranet and in your company newsletter to ensure your exciting news reaches all your stakeholders.
UK Gala Ceremony - Training as an Investment
Training – An Investment in the Business Bottom Line
The UK needs to see training an investment not a cost if it is to remain world class according to the organisation behind the National Training Awards.
UK Skills runs the National Training Awards on behalf of the government. Its chief executive Simon Bartley says training can often be seen as nice to have when times are good.
“But it’s often the first thing to go when economic conditions tighten and there’s less money to go around. This is sometimes because the people making the financial decisions see training as an add-on rather than as a business tool. Training is a lot like a crowbar: it has to be used the right way to get the best results.
“For instance among the winners we celebrated in this year’s awards was a partnership between Rok plc and the training provider Cordie. Managers at Rok had identified that they needed to improve supply chain resources to become more efficient and competitive.
“Cordie developed a 12 month programme to give the team supply chain and commercial skills. This investment brought Rok tangible benefits. For instance, last year the supply chain team saved the company more than £1.5 million.”
Simon Bartley said that training needed to be targeted to meet a specific business need.
“You need to know exactly what you want to achieve through training. For instance, in this year’s awards we recognised a County Durham energy company, AMEC. AMEC had found its growth being hampered by a lack of linesmen so it set up an academy to train its own. This investment in turn helped the company win a multi-million pound National Grid contract.
“Meanwhile, another National Training Award winner, First Group plc UK Bus Division, had faced staff turnover rates of 30 percent. Many of these were new drivers who left within the first 12 weeks. Each new driver costs the company several thousand pounds to recruit and induct so any driver that leaves was a wasted investment.
“The training that First Group introduced in partnership with Topaz Consulting Group Ltd involved coaching skills for Buddy Drivers and appointing assessors for NVQs and SVQs. These and other measures were designed to support the new drivers.
“This training has resulted in improved retention rates – and benefited their bottom line as more drivers are staying with the company.”
Ends.
For more information or to interview Simon Bartley contact:
Kathryn Crookenden ph. 020 7612 9261 kathryn.crookenden@ukskills.org.uk
Communications Executive, UK Skills

Social Media
Including news of your success with the National Training
Awards on your company's social networking site is another
great way to shout about your achievements.
Company literature
Announcing you have won a National Training Award can add
real kudos to your company - remember to include your
achievement on email signatures, business cards and company
literature.