Staff NVQs

Howells Patent Glazing is offering NVQs to all staff, in conjunction with Dudley College, in a bid to address the skills shortage that is affecting businesses in the UK.

According to The Employer Skills Survey (ESS), manufacturing businesses like Howells are most likely to encounter skills shortages when looking to recruit suitable candidates for their roles in the industry, accounting for 30% of hard-to-fill manufacturing vacancies.

One of Howells’ most recent employees to enrol on an NVQ course is Lewis Marsh, who has taken a role in sales administration. He is currently undertaking a Level 2 NVQ in ICT and functional skills level 2 in ICT.

Debbie Willetts, company secretary and education/training mentor at Howells Patent Glazing, said: “As a construction company, we have to keep up to date with training with IOSH, CSCS, Platform etc, but more importantly we feel that it’s our responsibility as employers to invest in our staff. Our long-term growth strategy isn’t just about processes, it’s about developing our staff by building on their qualifications and in turn, passion for our business. We are really excited to be rolling out new qualifications to all our staff during the course of 2017.