Strengths & good practices

Learning priorities are very clear for the company as a whole and for the different teams. The main area is in keeping up to date with technology and new products as well as new regulations and industry trends. One of the Directors is on the HCVA regional committee which ensures that current trends are known early and can be incorporated into future plans. Each team (installation, service, office) has different needs and team managers were clear on the types of needs and methods to cover these whether they were new products, accreditations, Health and Safety refreshers or on the job training and experience.

There are training matrices to ensure that the right amount of cover is available for the different roles and safety needs. In addition newer people who are developing (apprentices, improvers and junior engineers) keep diaries to log the work they do and any learning points covered. These are monitored weekly to ensure that individuals are covering the ground they need and are also read by engineers to see what types of work each newer person has experienced before going out to the job.

Different learning styles are covered in the different courses by having time for theory early on and time for practical work. Managers are happy to support people according to their needs and background experience eg some may need a course a couple of times to ensure that all the points are well understood.

Newer people work with different engineers to vary the coaching styles and range of effective techniques used so that individuals can find ways of working that fit best with their own.
People agreed that there is a culture of continuous learning which covered many different areas such as new products, better ways of working, dealing with different people, reminders of Health and Safety issues and risks and always looking for improvements. Managers ensure that they keep themselves up to date and many continue a learning log of their own to record new techniques and key information for their role.