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Norco

People Power Drives Growth at Poole Manufacturer

For manufacturer Norco GRP, investing in the skills of its workforce is key to fulfilling its ambition of becoming the world leader in its market. The privately-owned Dorset company, which specialises in glass reinforced plastic products, has a strong commitment to training. Ten years ago it set up a dedicated, company-funded training facility and it has also gained Investors in People accreditation. Norco GRP, which is based in Poole and has an annual turnover of £10million, is now working closely with Train to Gain to further unlock the skills potential of its 180-plus employees. So far this year staff have been working to achieve NVQs in a wide range of subjects. The company sees skills development as underpinning its continual growth – in recently making the Skills Pledge it highlighted its commitment to training to all staff.

“Our success is reliant on our highly-skilled employees”, said Managing Director Mark Northey. “Our industry leading training facility is equipping our people with the skills to manufacture products of an exceptional quality.”

“Training continues to help us stay ahead of our competitors and ensures that our people are the best in the business. We have a great team and great retention figures. All this is transforming Norco into the world leader in composite mouldings.”

Paula Best, Skills broker from Business Link set up an arrangement to deliver training from experienced coach Mike Tanner, XR Training and The Bournemouth and Poole College.

To date the company has had six people on NVQ Level 2 Introduction to Management, six on Level 3 Management, ten on NVQ Level 2 Composites, one on AAT Certificate of Accounting, four on NVQ Verifiers course, 12 team leaders on an intensive six-week 360-degree feedback course and 11 on NVQ Business Improvement Techniques (BIT) – eight at Level 2 and three at Level 3.

Mark Northey also enthuses “Since teaming up with The College the process has been seamless and straightforward and because of this successful partnership the staff have come on leaps and bounds.”

Most recently Norco GRP have taken up ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) training for their 24 Polish workers
“As the workers are all at different levels with their English it has been a little more difficult to organise but The College been a great support plus being flexible around our working hours as production time is crucial and we can’t take people out of working time.”


 

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