The 6th April 2019 marked the 2 years anniversary of the apprenticeship levy coming into effect and I believe it has taken quite literally that amount of time for most employers and stakeholders to fully understand it.
Working with The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (the Institute), we can see the direct impact the new standards are having on employer behaviour and how apprenticeships are being embedded into workforce planning and talent pipelines. As Anne Milton highlighted, apprenticeships bring new blood into businesses, they promote local talent and upskill the existing workforce.
Going forward, there is still a lot to do, particularly with non-levy payers and entry level standards. I know the government want to see the Institute become much more transparent and to build more open and fluid relationships with employers, and the Institute to be viewed as facilitators rather than just a regulator.
I see my role at the Institute very much as an ambassador and certainly engaging as much as possible with employers and training providers – encouraging full usage of the levy pot. If not this route, then definitely to promote the opportunity to transfer 25% to connected businesses in oppose to losing it month by month.
We had the pleasure of meeting Martin Corner at the
Automotive Logistics Summit, Martin is the Vice President of Supply Chain
Management for Nissan Europe. We spoke about management effectiveness,
specifically within the logistics sector and Martin was kind enough to do an
interview with us here at Skills for Logistics to elaborate further.
How
have you seen the logistics sector transform over your career?
The transformational use of analytics and
forecasting have really optimised the supply chain end to end, it’s just at the
beginnings for the automotive sector.
What
are the changes you see for the future workforce of logistics and supply chain?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and technology will start
to take over the administrative and data management side of the role. Once this happens it will allow the supply
chain team to become more focussed on business management. The future
requirements of a supply chain professional will be influencing skills,
communication, strategic business acumen and leadership. It will be an opportunity for a new
generation of supply chain professionals to develop a fulfilling career.
When
we last spoke, we discussed the importance of empathy in management style,
could you elaborate further?
In my opinion, respecting the strengths and style
of the individual and giving them the encouragement to flourish and be the best
version of themselves yields the best results.
Listening and giving people the space to define their own ideas and solutions,
rather than prescribing your own ideas, drives motivation through teams and
individuals.
How
do you feel good management has influenced your career?
Hugely, when you have a manager who; trusts,
respects, listens, supports, challenges constructively (crucial point) and adds value with suggestion and guidance, it
makes a significant difference. Being given the space to go beyond your
objectives and drive change is hugely motivating – the right line manager is
crucial in making this happen.
What management paths do you think are
available for the supply chain & logistics sector that maybe aren’t being
utilised currently?
I think that people pursuing a career in this
sector have an opportunity to grow their careers more than at any time in the
past. This could be towards more general
business management and even board level roles due to the unique positioning of
supply chain as a function, touching all parts of the business. Equally it
could be as a technical supply chain specialist working on the new technologies
that should help revolutionise the sector in the future.
What
would you say the priority is for the Supply Chain & logistics sector to
tackle first?
Look to the supply chain of the future and work
backwards. Year on year efficiencies are great but the step change needed to
really optimise data analytics/forecasting, AI, automation and robotics
requires some ambition and planning. We
need to imagine what the world can look like in 10/20 years’ time and make a
roadmap to get there as fast as possible. What will customers want and how will
the technology we see coming help deliver this revolution?
Your
final thoughts Martin?
For me supply chain is the most exciting part of the business to work in. Anyone considering a career which gives both a specialism and a total business overview should look no further. It is a function which concurrently operates on both a short-term delivery and long-term strategic basis which is immensely satisfying from both an intellectual and motivational perspective.
It was a great opportunity to talk to Martin and
hear his thoughts, but what about you? If you’ve got any insights you’d like to
share on the supply chain and logistics industry and management then please do
get in touch, we’d love to hear from you – Tweet
us!
If you’d like to connect with Martin on Linkedin,
please do show that you have read this article in your request.
Interface design is better than it’s ever been. Our capacity to
create novel interactions and meaningful experiences within a digital space has
revolutionised the way that we consume culture and it is changing the way we
learn. When you consider how technology supported your learning as a child,
from abacus to calculator, chalkboard to whiteboard, table to spreadsheet,
education has always integrated technology to improve experience.
What is so revolutionary now is that 99% of us carry smartphones, which has led to a paradigm shift in interaction design. Borrowing from the lessons learnt over the last 40 years of video games, are new languages for contextualising and communicating information. Underneath the hood of many gamified apps are tried and tested mechanics polished through thousands of hours of user testing – play is a cornerstone in how humans learn about the world. From play-fighting to play-dates, we explore social, cultural, educational values through play and mobile technology can enhance and expand upon it.
At Skills for Logistics, our End-Point Assessment (EPA) portal has been built to include interactive videos, multimedia quizzes and a whole palette of tools for us to create novel, inspiring learning content. We wanted to create compelling content that is engaging for a wide range of learning styles, that can be accessed on any device, at anytime. It is so important to use every tool available to empower the next generation with the skills they need to rise to the challenges of today. Mobile gamification of education allows us to properly compete for the attention of our students in a noisy, chaotic world.
If you’re interested in our interactive End-Point Assessment portal and how it could help your apprentices achieve, then please do get in touch. Email or Tweet us!
We chaired a Think Tank at the Automotive Logistics UK Summit, on ‘recruiting and retaining the right talent’. Answering question from some of the sectors most influential and leading organisations, here are the highlights of what we discussed!
So firstly, how do you identify who the right talent is? You go through a rigorous recruitment process and still struggle to find the ideal candidate.
Easy (ish) -you need to build a profile of an ideal candidate from your existing model employees that you feel represent who you are and what you do well. Peer review is always a useful tool – although the interviewing process is usually completed at a more senior level, it would be beneficial to incorporate some of your model employees to participate at this stage. They’d act as a benchmark for exactly what you want, as well as being a useful tool in helping you to identify the skills, characteristics and behaviours you need to really do the job.
Suffering from an aging work force? What can you do to attract a younger audience?
Ask
yourself where does the audience you want to attract reside? Utilising social
media as an effective tool to engage with a younger audience is imperative. The
retail industry for example targets a young audience specifically. H&M’s
“place of possible” campaign video, mostly importantly, only released on YouTube.
Using a platform’s targeted advertising to appear before videos watched by
their target demographic. Target marketing at its best as far as we’re
concerned!
How do we retain our talent though? It’s a common occurrence that people get the training and tick in the box on their CV they need and then leave – obviously this isn’t ideal.
Let’s face
it; a competitive salary is always going to be a large contributing factor as
to how employers obtain and retain employees, but the number of zeros on that
payslip isn’t everything nowadays. Something that every employer wants to avoid
in this situation is a wage war, which is completely understandable. Your work
force is the forefront of your organisation, they are your brand ambassadors. You
need them to be talking about how great their experience is
with your company and to tell their compelling stories.
Ask your employees what they value in a job, in addition to the predictable salary comment, you’ll also generate discussion around what they would really appreciate. Offer people choice, do they need job security above anything else? Flexible working hours? Progression in the work place? Is their work environment making them happy? How you do business, your values and how you treat employees really matters, so delivering what your employees want from you in the most pragmatic way is important. Position yourself to show you care, this will mitigate the risk of people leaving the company or the boss.
Incentivising the role – we asked TruckNet, the largest forum for truck drivers, what was their most used app. Netflix came out on top. Therefore, offering to pay for their Netflix account is a useful incentive, it is a tool that can be pulled on when they are on their breaks as an additional comfort – simple, but it shows you care.
If you’d like to discuss securing and retaining talent with us further, or you want to share your thoughts about a topic we haven’t covered here, please do get in contact. We’d love to hear form you!
Happy
Apprenticeship Week! It may seem unusual for an End-Point Assessment
Organisation to want to talk about “what apprenticeships mean for them”,
considering our interaction with apprentices is minimal in comparison to
training providers and employers. However, we’d like to elaborate on how
apprenticeships are the key to improving and supporting the logistics sector we
care so much about!
The sector is
undergoing unprecedented change globally and there are a number of challenges
that lie ahead. With the talent pool diminishing, an over reliance on EU labour
– not to mention the problems Brexit poses. The apprenticeship levy can act as
a structured and incentivised toolkit for the sector. There has never been a
more prominent time to upskill our workforce in a way employer’s actually need in
order to help mitigate some of these issues. Apprenticeships offer the
logistics industry a dynamic and lean way to plug the vital skills gap and
present a rich and viable career path within a sector that still isn’t really acknowledged in its own right.
It’s not all about the sector specialist apprenticeships
though. It’s evident that emerging technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and
Augmented Reality (AR) are making waves in the sector. It is these technologies
that are modernising the sector, with the likes of self-driving vehicles and
automated warehouses. The sector should be looking to the technology and
engineering based apprenticeships to leverage across emerging talent and best
practices that would be fundamentally sector agnostic.
How do we fit in?
Our mission is to raise awareness and promote career
opportunities in the logistics, supply chain and distribution industries. We
want to help build a pipeline of talented, subject matter experts to enter the sector
and increase the attractiveness of careers within. We are working to achieve
this through our interactive and immersive EPA portal that helps facilitate the
apprentices learning experience. We’re also shouting proudly about the
fantastic career opportunities the sector presents and utilising our
consultancy expertise to work in a collaborative partnership with employers and
training providers.
So it’s time
to take action, invest in future talent, take on an apprentice! Not sure how to
best utilise your levy pot? or which apprenticeship would best suit your
organisations requirements? Talk to one of our customer focused team members
for your very own innovative solution!
6th March 2019 Tweet or Email us – we’d love to hear from you!
David Coombes: Managing Director of Skills for Logistics
The Route Panel is a carefully selected team of sector specialists with the occupational experience and capability to review and advise on new Apprenticeship Standards, assessment plans and funding levels. Together, we are the employer voice of the Transport and Logistics sector, bringing our expertise and knowledge to the work of the Institute.
Working
with the Institute, its board and committees, the Panel supports the creation
of new apprenticeship opportunities and promotes occupations in transport and
logistics – addressing the challenges and identifying both current and future
skills gaps. It’s really about the flow of accurate, specialist information. We
represent the needs of employers and ensure Apprenticeship Standards are fit
for purpose. Meeting the needs of employers and being clear, accessible,
affordable and achievable for apprentices, training providers and End-Point
Assessors (EPA).
We
take this responsibility very seriously at Skills for Logistics (SFL). If the
logistics industry is to rise to the endemic recruitment and retention
challenges, it needs top quality apprentices.
We have in-depth knowledge of the industry, working closely at the coal
face of recruitment, training and skill issues. We therefore have a
comprehensive understanding of skills and training which should be made
available to the logistics industry.
Personally,
this is an opportunity for me to give something back to an industry that has
supported me throughout my career. I’m passionate about the skills agenda – so
being part of the Institute for Apprenticeships allows me to take
responsibility and truly promote and increase opportunities in logistics for
the next generation.
If you’d like to get in touch to discuss any thoughts, ideas or concerns you have about apprenticeship standards or the levy then please get in touch. It would be great to hear from you.