Plymouth Community Homes Plymouth Community Homes (PCH) is the largest locally-based social housing provider in Plymouth. The not-for-profit association works to provide high quality and affordable homes for rental to the local community and its tradespeople carry out more than 50,000 repairs a year.
Mike Jones, Business Skills Advisor at the College said: “The College has a long standing, positive working relationship with Plymouth Community Homes. We worked closely with them to create this bespoke training programme in order to meet their business and timetabling needs.”
PCH is responsible for the maintenance of the social housing stock in the city and when it needed to train 62 tradespeople from its maintenance and repair department, it approached City College Plymouth. The company recognised the need for staff to obtain a greater range of skills in order to improve operational efficiency and to provide an improved level of service to clients.
Mike continued: “It
was important that we understood PCH’s specific business needs and were able to support them with a programme of training which would deliver maximum benefits with as little disruption as possible - this we achieved with 100% success.”
City College Plymouth - Employer Case Study
The training took place over a ten-week period, with each session focusing on a specific trade, including tiling, plastering, plumbing, carpentry and kitchen and bathroom fitting. Although many of the staff taking part in the training were already qualified and experienced tradespeople, the training sessions provided them with an excellent opportunity to update their skills and knowledge across a number of different areas, not just their own specialism. The training ensures PCH employees are multi-skilled, meaning fewer operatives are needed to visit tenants’ homes for each repair. Ian Frazer, Head of Building and Technical Services at Plymouth Community Homes, said: “We were delighted to be working alongside City College Plymouth in order to support the training and development of our workforce. “Plymouth Community Homes is committed to investing in its staff so that we can deliver flexible and high quality services to our residents.” Darren Crowther, one of the multi-skilled operatives who took part in the training at the College is a carpenter by trade but was also able to learn valuable plumbing skills. Speaking of the benefits of undertaking the training, Darren commented: “Taking part in this training has allowed me to develop additional skills that can be used on a day-to-day basis. This benefits our tenants who do not need to wait for two operatives to complete a repair.” The training delivered by the College to PCH staff has given the workforce improved flexibility and greater skill across a number of trade areas, which ultimately enables PCH to offer an enhanced level of service to its customers.
City College Plymouth, Kings Road, Plymouth, PL1 5QG T: 01752 305026 E: employers@cityplym.ac.uk W: www.cityplym.ac.uk/employers