Posted: 12/10/22
Helping businesses to grow thanks to college’s new project
A new portfolio of studies aimed at upskilling and reskilling employees in the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire areas has been developed by West Nottinghamshire College.
The Reskill and Recover project has been designed with small and medium-sized businesses in mind, to ensure their workforce have the skills needed to access future and emerging jobs markets after the pandemic and post-Brexit.
A range of short courses could be available free to those in the D2N2 area (Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire) and cover a range of different levels and subject areas. The project has been part-funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) and will be low cost or free to employers, subject to eligibility.
Individuals who work within an SME, which is a business with less than 250 employees, can access free training through the college in subjects such as maths and English skills and a range of industry-specific skills from Level 1 to Level 3, such as learning how to become a team leader, digital marketing, cyber security awareness, customer service, warehousing and storage and much more.
Although the courses are open to all people working in the relevant organisations, there will be additional support to those aged 50 and above, employees with disabilities, those who have previously missed out on traditional education and those from the black, Asian and minority ethnic groups (BAME).
Students can opt to study the programmes online or on-site at the college, depending on the course content, and will be able to access all areas of college support throughout their course.
Hayley Woods, owner of Woods of West Gate salon, Mansfield, has recently been involved in the college’s Reskill and Recover project and studied online with her colleague Alanya Jennings.
Hayley said: “I was looking to upskill key members of the team in areas that we’d identified as priorities for our business moving forward. The fact that the programmes are CMI accredited was attractive as this gave us access to a wide bank of resources to help our studies. And of course, the programmes being free was also a deciding factor as it felt it was too good an opportunity to miss.
“I completed the Corporate Social Responsibility course and as a result it has made me realise that as an organisation we need to clearly communicate to our customers our intentions around this.
“Alanya has developed strategies to improve communications between team members and has a newfound confidence in leading team briefings. These programmes allowed us to focus on other areas of skill development rather than industry specific or technical skills and there have been real changes in business operations as a result of engaging in this learning.
Manager of the college's retail, adult and professional studies, Nicholas Maidment, said: “Reskill and Recover will provide so many local employees with a great chance to update their skills or take on a new challenge to support their working lives.
“The courses are being run flexibly and can be done online and should fit in with most people’s busy schedules. We’ve tailored the programmes to support those who may feel their skills aren’t as sharp as they were and to help people to gradually increase their confidence, especially when considering studying a new skill.”
The full remit of programmes is available at www.wnc.ac.uk/reskill and those interested in studying can call for further details on 01623 900876.
