Tennent's shows the way forward
Nov 22 2010 by Richard Asquith, The Journal
DRINKS firm Tennent’s is opening Scotland's first "pub academy" to train staff in the hospitality industry.
The £1m training facility includes a working bar, beer cellar and kitchen and will offer courses on skills such as mixology, customer service and business management.
Although it is not possible for every business to have their own version of “pub school”, developing the skills of your staff is an important way to improve productivity, competitiveness and profitability.
Whatever the size of your business and whichever sector you operate in, to be successful you need to identify areas where you can improve performance. To survive and succeed in your sector, you should benchmark your performance against your competitors.
Once you have identified the key factors that lead to success in your sector, you can focus on the skills that are required to improve your businesses performance.
Undertaking a training needs analysis is a systematic way of assessing the gap between the skills you have and the skills you lack.
Although skills needs vary between businesses, there are certain skills that are required by all modern customer-focused businesses. These include IT skills, sales and marketing, finance, customer service, management and leadership.
Developing the skills of existing staff improves overall job satisfaction, employee turnover and can be a cost- effective way of plugging a skills gap.
Increasing skills levels has personal and professional benefits for people being trained and improves business productivity.
Offering training opportunities not only has tangible benefits for business performance, but also makes it easier for your business to recruit and retain high-quality staff.
Business Link is offering a series of fully-funded workshops designed to help you and your staff develop the skills to help grow your business and increase profitability. The workshops are taking place across the North East until mid-December and cover a range of topics including business management and networking skills.
For further information and to book your place visit www.eventsnortheast.co.uk or email training@businesslinknortheast.co.uk
Business Link also has a team of expert advisers who can offer advice, help and information if you are looking to develop skills and training within your business. For further information about Business Link visit www.businesslink.gov.uk/northeast or call 0845 600 9006. The Business Link service is part-financed by the European Regional Development Fund.
:: Richard Asquith
