High Level Skills – Priority Skills
Priority Skills for D2N2 SMEs
The project supports the European Social Fund investment priority 2.1: Enhancing equal access to lifelong learning. Our offer as part of this project is to deliver a suite of, high quality training courses for the employees of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in order to upskill the D2N2 supply chain with progression pathways to the higher level and technical skills required to respond to new opportunities and to deal with current and future business challenges.
The Priority Skills project is fully funded and we have a range of courses that are available at zero cost to your organisation.
Courses available
- ILM Level 2 Award in Leadership & Team Skills
- Level 2 Award in Health & Safety in the Workplace
- Level 2 Award in Food Safety in Catering
- Level 2 Award in Food Allergen Awareness
- Level 2 Award in the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH)
- Level 2 Award in Basic Life Support and Safe use of an Automated External Defibrillator
- Level 2 Award in Personal Licence Holders
Who is eligible?
Most small and medium organisations in Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire are eligible for support. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are defined as:
- Less than 250 employees
- Annual turnover under EUR 50 million or;
- Annual balance sheet less than EUR 43 million
- Not more than 25% of the organisation is owned by an enterprise that is not an SME.
Companies must be based in the D2N2 area to qualify for support. D2N2 is the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) for Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.
HUUB
um i’m dean jackson
and i’m the ceo and founder of hoop
design
we’re a derby based innovative
sportswear company that have our roots
in swim bike we’re under sport triathlon
we’ve now moved into cycling and we are
exceptionally
proud employees of a company that’s got
its roots in derby
we love this city by the river derwent
it’s an innovative forward-looking city
and we’re proud to be taking hoove into
over 32 countries internationally
and spreading the word about our great
city of derby we were looking at some
training
and we needed support in a couple of
areas and that was first aid
and also organisational skills and the
first aid is vital
it’s a server you have to have skills
within the organization
because it’s the well-being the health
of everybody who’s in the team
but also anybody who comes to see us
we’ve got a lot of people visiting and
wetsuit trying on
and all that kind of stuff i’m gonna go
to outside events so we felt it
paramount that we had plenty of coverage
you know for holidays and staff being
away and it’s it’s made it uh
any as an even more responsible employer
and organization and then we come to the
organizational skills i think we all
like to think that we’re the
most organized people that there is in
the in the business
but it’s only when you reach out and go
for the training and you bring the
skills back
that actually not only are those
individuals you know more efficient
to the business but those you know that
what they’ve learned will bleed through
the rest of the organization
and pass that over so you know we’re now
more skilled to deal with emergencies
and more efficiently but also for the
whole organization that business has
really
benefited from the time with the dark
college group
it was great down-to-earth training
you know sometimes staff can go out i
think they’re going to come back
confused
or bewildered because there’s so much
but it was delivered in
such a wonderful way that you know we
we’ve reached the rewards and i know the
individuals have and i want to thank
derby college group for
for actually pitching the training
sessions at
those that are attending it and not
being highbrow about it all
just good honest fantastic training so
experience with the derby college group
coordinators and team
has been fantastic it’s it’s not like
we’re being sold to
they’re asking us questions about our
organisation and where we feel we may
have weaknesses and if those weaknesses
are causing issues further downstream
and now that can help plug them for us
they’ve been a delight to work with and
if i could sum it up it’s like an
emergency service for training
when you see something need to plug in
or putting right just call the team up
and then come back to the solution
quickly and efficiently and incredible
value for money
when we sent our staff out onto the
training course
i wanted them to come back feeling more
empowered and capable and able
and 100 that has happened they’ve been
at training they’ve come back and they
want the responsibility and they want
the accountability
and that’s an absolute joy because a
growing organization you can have
communication
and accountability alliance can become a
little blurred and confused
it’s allowed to say no you’re in charge
of that you’ve done the training you
know
what it looks like and how to manage it
go run with it
and it has happened in certainly two
recent members of staff that we sent off
on the training
have taken accountability taken hold of
departments
and we’re all reaping rewards through it
because they’re now implementing that
throughout the business
i think you don’t really see the
benefits until after the training is
completed and
it’s great for us because we send staff
out telling them they’re going to learn
something and new skills
and you can sometimes see the puzzle in
their eyes does that you know what are
we going to get out of this
and it’s so nice when they come back and
actually say i’ve learned so
much today and we’ve recently done some
training with the derby college group
and we sent out a brand new employee and
his parents said for the first time he’s
come back said i learned something today
at work
like how cool is that yeah we’re so much
richer for it
if i had to sum up it’s been a
delightful exercise the staff have loved
it
and because they’ve loved it had a
pleasurable experience
other members of staff want to go on to
training courses and i don’t think
that’s the norm or not but we have a
little bit of reluctance now again to go
into training
but everyone wants to go and do
something with the zombie college group
and and they’re asking me what else can
they do and what other skills do i think
they need to work on
and improve so i really can’t thank the
group enough for that because we’ve
now become an entity that wants to train
more and
you know relish in that
Priority Skills – Success Stories
Contact us
Support is available to employees and businesses until December 2023.
If you are interested in accessing or would like to know more about The Priority Skills for D2N2 SMEs project, please contact.
Amy Wicks amy.wicks@derby-college.ac.uk 07885 477698