Gilds Associates
“We’re all very excited… the service will make Gilds even more competitive, while offering our employees fantastic opportunities for personal development.” Zubair Aziz Company Director
- Business sector:
- Hospitality
- Employees:
- 5-49
- Region:
- North West
- Company profile:
- Gilds Associates provides temporary and permanent catering staff to businesses in Manchester. Their clients include Manchester United and Manchester City football clubs.
The Challenge
Although Gilds’ own training programme equipped recruits with all the vocational skills they needed, many were lacking basic maths and English skills.
This became all the more apparent when Gilds started recruiting people from economically deprived areas of Manchester. The company was keen to help unemployed people back into the workplace, but many of these candidates lacked basic skills which limited their opportunities. Gilds firmly believed these people had a lot to offer as employees if only they had the relevant skills.
The Solution
Gilds got in touch with the Learning and Skills Council Greater Manchester and found out about their Employer Training Pilot – the scheme which has now developed into the new national Train to Gain service.
Through the scheme, Gilds could get flexible training tailored to their needs – with the added bonus of wage compensation, helping to cover the cost of releasing their staff for training.
Gilds was keen to take advantage of this, so after assessing their needs, the LSC put them in touch with WEA North West, a Skills for Life training provider. They came in and shadowed Gilds’ own training, to assess how to embed the new programme as effectively as possible. They then ran the training at Gilds’ on site learning centre.
Initially the programme was piloted with 6–12 learners, but the plan is to make it available to any employees who need it.
The Results
Thanks to the new training, Gilds is now offering its employees more challenging opportunities, and helping them realise their true potential. This has:
- Improved employees’ confidence.
- Increased productivity.
- Enhanced Gilds’ reputation as a caring employer.
