Seven members of our housing team recently achieved the nationally recognised NVQ Level 2 qualification in Lean Management and are already using their new skills to drive out waste and improve working practices with the aim of providing a better and more efficient service to our customers.
Due to the current pandemic restrictions, our graduates were invited to attend a virtual award event hosted by David Smith, Digital Transformation Director, and Philippa Patterson, Head of Business Transformation, where they were formally congratulated for successfully completing the programme.
David said “Covid-19 prevented us from coming together for an official award ceremony so I was especially keen to ensure the team were recognised for their commitment to the programme and to hear more about how they plan to use their new skills to improve the business.”
The 13-month programme, delivered by business improvement experts, Lean Education and Development Ltd, focused on providing our cohorts with a greater knowledge of continuous improvement techniques in areas such as improving efficiency and leaning out processes. They were also tasked with identifying an area of the business that needed improvement and to create and deliver a project using the tools they learnt during the course.
Craig McGilvray, Managing Director Secure Infrastructure, spoke at the event and said “People are at the heart of how we deliver across Secure Infrastructure and it is our top priority to empower people to do better. These apprenticeships provide an excellent way of gaining essential experience and will prove invaluable to our business. I’m delighted that we have a team of people who are committed to delivering better outcomes for our clients and customers and who are ready to support our drive to work smarter and more efficiently.”
Mark Kneill-Boxley, Lean Education and Development Ltd, supported the team throughout their programme and added “Amey is extremely fortunate to have employees who are so dedicated and so keen to learn. COVID-19 meant that we had to stop our face to face workshops and learning had to be carried out online. Every single one of them continued to work on their projects and provided copious amounts of evidence against each element of the course – all while carrying out their day jobs and dealing with the challenges of the pandemic. It’s now over to them to apply the skills they’ve learnt in the workplace.”
The programme was such a success we plan to open it up to more employees across the wider business next year to embed a culture of improvement throughout all our contracts.