SHINING LIGHTS

It was after a successful trial at its Lancaster site that Sunlight decided to implement a national training programme with Intec.

Sunlight is the UK’s market leader in textile rental and laundering services for industry, commerce and the NHS and public sector and the training programme mainly sits within its Textile Services division.

“We had heard good things from the staff on the pilot programme and felt our workforce as a whole could benefit from formal training,” said Andrea Richardson, HR Director of Sunlight’s Textile Services Division. “We wanted to increase employees’ knowledge base and offer them a formal qualification to build upon their current experience. As a business, we were looking for increased retention rates, increased employee motivation and ultimately decreased error rates and increased profit.”

Sunlight chose to offer NVQs in Customer Service level 2, Warehousing and Storage level 2, Business Administration level 2 and Management level 3 at all relevant sites.

“Personally I am very happy with how the training is going,” said Andrea. “A big plus for me is that I get regular updates and reports so I know exactly how our staff are doing.

“All the employees completing the courses are happy with the programmes and seem more confident in their work and happier in themselves. They believe that they have added value to their current skills base and that this will help them in their day-to-day roles.”

Andrea is looking at introducing Sunlight’s sales team onto the NVQ programme in the near future and will also be identifying the next groups of employees who might need training once the first group has finished.