Stannah Employees Participating in Team Leadership Programme

Stannah have brought together a group of existing Andover employees from across the Group to participate in a Level 3 Team Leader Apprentice Programme.

In conjunction with Activate Business School and Grant Thornton, 13 candidates will be spending the next 18 months studying seven development modules.  Each module will take two months and then the apprentices will be able to access individual coaching to help them put the theories they have learnt into practice by applying them to their day-to-day work.  Applying these skills to real life situations brings the learning to life. Stannah have been able to use the Apprenticeship Levy to fund this programme, the first time they have been able to use it with a cohort of delegates.  The Levy, introduced in 2017, is a tax on large employers which can be used to fund apprenticeship training.

The apprentices in this particular scheme come from wide range of backgrounds and didn’t need any previous qualifications.  Everyone will achieve a Chartered Management Institute Team Leader qualification and, where appropriate, a level 2 in maths and/or English by the end of the course.

Activate Business School are recognised experts in apprenticeship training. The bespoke modules they have created cover a number of areas including project management, communications and relationship building and managing yourself.  The finance module will be provided by Grant Thornton.

At the first session participants met Robert Sadler-Brocklehurst, an associate working with Activate Learning, who will be their key contact throughout the programme as well as Dawn Annets, the performance coach, also from Activate, who will be supporting everyone individually.  Robert commented, “We want to teach people to be objective about situations in their working lives rather than subjective. We encourage them to learn from and build on all past experience, good and bad”.

Mike Newman, Stannah’s learning and development manager was keen to stress, “We are proud of the fact that at Stannah we take the time to develop our people and want to encourage them to share their knowledge across the business.  It’s all about supporting each other and this is the first time we have run a cross-divisional, cross-functional programme in this way”.

The benefits are huge.  Individuals will receive training, have opportunities for practical application of the skills they learn as well as have access to support along the way.  The end result for them will be increased personal development and growth as a leader plus a Chartered Management Institute recognised qualification.  For Stannah the benefits are also important.  Training of individual members of staff will contribute to future growth of the business and continuous improvement, enabling the business to offer a better service all round.