Business-critical areas at core of training project (From Stourbridge News)

Business-critical areas at core of training project

7:20am Wednesday 21st April 2010 in Business Daily

WHEN the former Learning and Skills Council (LSC) identified the 10 most business critical areas for small and medium-sized businesses, it was with the intention of incorporating expertise in the subjects into education and training.

Having identified the most important skills and knowledge required for forthcoming generations of employees to be equipped with, the next problem was how to incorporate those key areas of knowledge into learning and skills training on a day-to-day basis.

Oldbury-based Black Country Training Group is tackling that challenge, with the help of funding from the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS).

LSIS is providing £89,000 from its Flexibility and Innovation Fund to help finance a project which will encourage thousands of learners at an array of West Midlands providers to consider the business-critical areas as part of their studies through a mix of websites and online learning portfolios.

The Black Country Training Group - which supports work-based learning (WBL) providers catering to around 19,000 learners through Train 2 Gain, the Kick-start Life NEET (not in education, employment and training) reduction programme and its Apprenticeship Works apprentice placement scheme - is working with the Bewdley-based software-support agency TDM, to implement the scheme.

“We work with providers and learners to encourage learners to think about these 10 business-critical areas with a variety of methods,” said Derrin Kent, of TDM.

“We train provider staff and learners in the use of reflective portfolios, developed by Mahara. This is a personal log of each learner’s lifelong learning or progress towards a qualification. We encourage learners to explain how they are thinking about the business-critical areas as part of their training.

“For instance, one of the areas identified is risk management so, if someone is studying plumbing, they would have to explain how they would ensure their work does not backfire and cause flooding or structural damage.

“Another route we use is the WBL-online.org.uk website, which provides a community of practice for West Midlands-based WBL providers.

“And we also have the WBL-Shots.org.uk online radio show, twice monthly podcasts and debates, which encourage providers to consider best practice in their WBL provision.”

LSIS’s Flexibility and Innovation Fund was established to promote innovative ideas and research, which can then be replicated across the learning and skills sector nationwide, to drive up standards.

The £89,000 provided to the Black Country Training Group will be used to train staff and learners in the online methods and help providers to host events run by TDM.

Some of the money will also be used as a cash incentive to encourage learners to use the scheme. The five best effectively created learner views about business-critical areas in each provider will win a cash prize, with the 18 best regional views receiving a further reward.

The project is being backed by Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire Training Provider Association, as well as by other provider networks in Birmingham and Solihull and Coventry and Warwickshire.