Devon Construction Training News

Leadership and Management Advisory Service

Some little time ago, I reported how companies with between 2 and 250 employees could apply for funding to develop their leadership and management skills. If you have not taken advantage of this funding you may like to know that the offer is still on the table. Of course there are conditions (there always are) but if you wish to know more you can get all the details from www.skillssoutheast.co.uk/leadership-and-management.html

Skills South East will be very happy to discuss any plans you may have for Leadership and Management development. As ever, funding is limited and the current availability runs out next March. From April 2012, there will be another funding programme in place and details of this are awaited. But if you are interested, enquire now.

Training and Development

Thank you to all who submitted their preferred training needs in response to my note about the £10,000 grant we have been offered in order to provide free training. The response was nothing short of overwhelming. When I stopped counting requests totalled not far short of 1000 days training. There was just no way the £10,000 could stretch that far. Your Committee wants to see the grant spread as widely and as fairly as possible across the membership. We will add leverage to the grant by paying the venue costs from Group funds. Also the Workshops will be funded by the Group. The £10,000 will therefore be applied wholly and only to the cost of the training.

Nevertheless we have had to cut out some of the more 'ambitious' requests but we do now have a programme. Details of dates and venues will be advised very shortly

The Lew Drake Award

Several members of the Committee administer the Lew Drake Trophy fund. This was set up for the purposes of,"promoting and encouraging construction craft apprentice". Last year the Lew Drake Trophy and a cash prize were awarded to an apprentice from South West Highways. We propose to make another award at our next Annual Dinner so we are seeking nominations. If you have an apprentice whose achievements you think should be recognised, let me know and I will arrange for you to receive a nomination form. Make someone happy.

A couple of dates for your 2012 diary

8th March Our Annual General Meeting will be at the Passage House Hotel. Full details will be available nearer the date but the meeting will follow the pattern of previous years. Following the normal business of the AGM, electing members to the Committee, reviewing progress against targets, approving the accounts etc we are looking to have a series of presentations from advisers from ConstructionSkills on grant issues, Business Reviews etc, as well as an update on employment issues. And don't forget, there will be the usual bacon butties!

15th March Our Annual Dinner will be on Thursday 15th March and once again we will be enjoying ourselves at Sandy Park, the home of Exeter Chiefs. We will be pleased to welcome the return of Tank Sherman as our guest speaker and entertainer for the evening. More details will follow but please make a note in your diary.

Between now and then I will be asking members if they would like to offer something for the raffle. There were some very generous gifts last year and our Treasurer has agreed that the Group can once again be offering a prize of a voucher worth £250 training. Jenny Tozer won that last year and has since made good use of it.
Once again we are looking to attract a sponsor dinner. Watch this space.

The end of the year is nigh.....

It is about now that we begin to prepare our fourth quarterly report to CITB- ConstructionSkills. This is an account of our progress against our agreed targets.

Targets cover such activities as the number of training days, the recruitment of apprentices, the number of business reviews, membership of the group, career events, initiatives and much more.
This is no 'tick box' exercise. Our results determine the amount of grant we get. SO if I do come knocking at your door for information for the return, it is for a good cause, namely, the Devon Group!

Good News?

From time to time, a member shares some good news with us. An award here, a recognition there, some sort of special achievement. Greg Clark of QMS for example has shared with us his moment of fame when he jogged around Silverstone alongside Katie Price and lately he is sharing with us his struggles to grow a http://mobro.co/gjc1306

QMS have also celebrated a couple of awards and achievements as have Schooling Builders and Coyde Construction. If you have some good news to share, let me know please: time to bring your light from under the bushel