Housing Partners are a thriving and growing business that develops software solutions for social housing provider organisations. As part of this growth the company have recently recruited more staff so when they heard of Skills Support for the Workforce from Business Development Midlands Ltd (BDM), they were keen to get involved.

Skills Support for the Workforce (SSW) is a programme developed to upskill employees within small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SSW provides recognised accredited qualifications and bespoke training courses to enhance employees’ skills, increase the competitiveness of businesses and boost local economies. Serco delivers the programme through a network of training providers like BDM, on behalf of Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP). SSW is co-financed by the European Social Fund and the Educational and Skills funding agency.

BDM’s adviser, Ian White, carried out a Training Needs Analysis (TNA) with Housing Partners to identify skills requirements to support their business plan.

Ian worked closely with Housing Partners’ senior management team and helped them to set out a bespoke management training strategy with a particular emphasis on developing their team leaders. As a result a number of team leaders have completed a Level 2 unit focusing on skills of leading a team, developing a work team and effective team member skills.

Dawn Churchley, Head of HR and Talent Development at Housing Partners, said “This initiative came at exactly the right time for us as we expand which puts an increasing emphasis on ensuring a robust team ethos with everybody pulling in the same direction. Our team leaders are a critical part of this process and following their recent training we are looking to progress them all onto a Level 3 course to enhance their team working skills even further.

“The process of undertaking a Training Needs Analysis with BDM was also a really valuable process and I would recommend this initiative to any business who need to develop their management capability.”

To find out about accessing fully funded training for your business through the Skills Support for the Workforce programme, businesses can contact us