 |
| Company: |
The Rum Story & The Whitehaven Harbour Commission |
| Location: |
Whitehaven, Cumbria |
| Established: |
May 2000 |
| Sector: |
Tourism |
| No of employees: |
44 | |
The Rum Story was voted Cumbria Tourism’s small visitor attraction of the year in 2007 and its authentic Caribbean island experience provides family fun for tourists and local visitors alike.
In 2007 The Rum Story started trading under the umbrella of Whitehaven Harbour Commissioners alongside Whitehaven Marina, which manages the harbour and marina and associated activities.
Working in the competitive and customer focused industry of tourism it is imperative that the team of 44 staff across both venues receive the training they need to provide the best possible experience for their visitors.
Improving workforce skills
Wendy Black is a Duty Manager at the Rum Story and one of her responsibilities is to organise relevant training for the team. She comments, “We already had an established relationship with Business Link Northwest as we had consulted with them about achieving Investors in People status. I am a regular user of Business Link’s website which has lots of information on it regarding issues such as staff development, so when Business Link mentioned Train to Gain as a way of improving our workforce skills, I was keen to find out more.”
Skills Advisers assist organisations to put together an agreed training package by identifying training needs, pinpointing the right training and training providers and finding available funding.
Wendy continues, "We were put in touch with a Skills Adviser from Business Link who has been an invaluable resource for us ever since. We explained to him what our staff do and what skills they need and he was then able to suggest a number of relevant NVQ courses which would be funded through Train to Gain, and pointed us in the direction of training providers who could deliver the programme to our staff."
Tailored trainingAs part of the Train to Gain service, Skills Adviser John Berry visited Wendy at The Rum Story to get a clear picture of staff roles and the type of training required. John explains, “When I first went into The Rum Story it was clear the staff had a range of training needs. With diverse roles across the tourism industry it was necessary to put together a comprehensive training plan that addressed each of the company’s specific requirements.
"The Rum Story is really keen to have a clear training plan in place and to be able to measure the results of such development, as such Train to Gain has fit in really well with their objective of upskilling their staff. The Rum Story is eager to move forward and so Wendy keeps in regular contact with me often making wider enquiries about issues such as conflict resolution and time management as well as further training."
There are now ten staff at The Rum Story and the Whitehaven Marina working towards a Level 2 NVQ in programme areas from Customer Service and Multi Skills in Hospitality to Catering and Harbour Operations.
Wendy continues, "Our Skills Adviser has been really good at pinpointing the best NVQ courses for our staff. Training is only one part of my responsibilities and it takes a long time to look through the thousands of courses and training providers that are available. Being able to turn to Business Link to help in this search has freed up a lot of my time, allowing me to concentrate on other areas of staff development and the different aspects of my role as Duty Manager.
"We have been able to rely on John, not just to find high quality training programmes but also relevant qualifications offered by training partners we would never have thought of approaching. As well as working with Lakes College on the Customer Service, Hospitality and Catering NVQs, John was also able to put us in touch with Julie Bell Consulting, who are also based in Cumbria, with regards to appraisal training and Liverpool based Drake International who offer an NVQ in Harbour Operations.
"We would never have thought to look for training providers outside of Cumbria, however John took the approach of finding the most relevant training first, then looking for a provider. As it happens, all our NVQ training is conducted on an in-house basis, meaning each training provider comes into our workplace at regular intervals to set work and check on progress – so it doesn’t really matter where the provider is based. This also means we don’t have to worry about a large proportion of our staff taking time out to go to college every week and that staff are able to relate their NVQ programme directly to their job."
Reaping the rewardsThe Rum Story is already reaping the benefits of the Train to Gain service as Wendy explains, "We are seeing some really positive outcomes from the training so far. The staff are much more confident in their roles now and a more empowered employee can only mean one thing for the company – increased productivity. Some of our staff have had bad experiences with training in the past so it’s important we are able to demonstrate how learning can benefit them at work and personally. All the NVQ training uses transferable skills such as motivation and confidence building and is empathic to the needs of mature learners. As such the skills they learn can help them to be more productive and suggest new ideas at work, and can also benefit other areas in their lives.
"We are so pleased with Train to Gain that any current or new recruits at The Rum Story without a Level 2 qualification will be offered the chance to take a course through the service.
"Train to Gain is a good thing for any business to use. If you have well trained and motivated staff they will feel more competent in delivering the objectives of your business. The service has worked especially well for us as a small business as we have a limited training budget. As the NVQs are fully funded through Train to Gain, we have been able to put our budget towards developing a broader learning environment for staff, for example we are introducing e-learning and setting up a training resource library.
"The results speak for themselves – we have recently won a number of accreditations including Investors in People, Excellence Through People which is a specific hospitality and catering award and we have become a Quality Assured Visitor Attraction. Appropriate training of our staff has played a major role in achieving these awards and the related customer service that we are able to provide.
"We still rely on the help of our Skills Adviser who has been a fantastic help to us as a growing organisation. Aside from guiding us through the Train to Gain service, John has been able to point us in the right direction on a number of more general business support enquiries we have made – I can’t praise the service enough!"