Nuttall Employees on the 'Fast Track to Success'
Edmund Nuttall Ltd has launched a major training initiative valued at £1.38 million, designed to deliver vocational qualifications to the site workforce on two significant civil engineering contracts based in London.
The scheme known as 'Fast Track to Success' aims to provide National Vocational Qualifications to all operatives working on two Channel Tunnel Rail Link projects, CTRL 103 and CTRL 250 located at St. Pancras and at Dagenham. In addition the scheme will assist local unemployed people into a career in construction as well as provide assistance in English language and computer skills. 'Fast Track to Success' follows two other training programmes, which have shown a dramatic 76% reduction in labour turnover and a dramatic 73% reduction in the rate of accidents on-site.
'Fast Track to Success' is the third training initiative, in which Nuttall has secured additional resources from the European Social Fund and the Construction Industry Training Board [CITB] to upskill not only its own workforce but that of its sub-contractors and joint venture partners. The programme was launched at a function held at the British Library with Sir Michael Latham, Chairman of the CITB as keynote speaker. Sir Michael congratulated Nuttall on its 'strong commitment to training' and praised the partnership between the company, CITB and the European Social Fund.
Nuttall now has 7 full time and 110 qualified assessors operating on a part time basis with over 1500 permanent and sub-contract employees participating in NVQs. The construction industry faces many tough challenges in trying to recruit 370,000 people by the end of 2006 and the pressing need to upskill an even greater number of the existing and future workforce. Graham Medcroft, director Human Resources at Nuttall, is proud of the company’s proactive stance regarding training within the industry. He said: 'Major projects such as 'Fast Track to Success' have confirmed Nuttall as being one of the leaders of the industry in terms of upskilling both the workforce and the supply chain. We are delighted that the ESF supports us in our drive for continuous improvement. Training advances in terms of health and safety, the working environment, lifelong learning and equal opportunities has yielded substantial benefits to our business. Labour turnover has fallen from 100% to 23.5% and the incident frequency has decreased from 1.8 to 0.5 since the inception of our training programmes. These schemes will continue to provide Nuttall with lasting competitive advantage and, most importantly a quality service for the benefit of clients and the company'.
Editors’ notes:
- Edmund Nuttall Ltd is one of the UK’s leading civil engineering contractors and an operating company of the European construction group HBG, Hollandsche Beton Groep nv.
- In the UK Nuttall has a civil engineering turnover in excess of £400 million and operates throughout the country from a network of regional centres.
For further information, please contact:
Peter Bishop, Public Relations Manager, Edmund Nuttall Ltd, St James House, Knoll Road, Camberley, Surrey GU15 3XW, telephone: 01276 854708, telefax: 01276 854710, email: peter.bishop@edmund-nuttall.co.uk