HR Hislop Electrical Contractors Ltd was founded by Harry Hislop in 2009 and provides a full range of electrical services in Wiltshire. The business has grown steadily and now employs 18 workers.

As employees rise through the company, they are asked to work less on the installation of equipment and more on budgeting and pricing new jobs. This requires additional IT skills that the employee may not already have. Another challenge facing the business was marketing as generating good publicity is one of the major ways a business can grow, so staff needed to learn social marketing skills and video production.

HR Hislop found out about the social media course via an email, as they were on the mailing list after having worked with Skills Support for the Workforce previously. Their staff were keen to do the course, so Rachel Crossey, the SSW Coordinator for the Swindon & Wiltshire region put HR Hislop in touch with Skills Ladder Ltd, one of Serco’s trusted network of expert organisations chosen to deliver the SSW programme. SSW is co-financed by the European Social Fund and the Education and Skills Funding Agency, so HR Hislop could access the training at no cost to their business.

Skills Ladder conducted a skills needs analysis with HR Hislop to identify which training would benefit their business. Based on this, it was determined the social media and spreadsheet courses would be beneficial.  

The social media course was delivered in Swindon over a two-day period and the spreadsheet course was delivered via Zoom due to the COVID 19 pandemic.

So far 4 members of staff have benefited from the training; 2 employees learned about spreadsheets and 2 employees worked on social media and video production. 3 employees have achieved the Level 2 Award in IT User Skills with the fourth expected to complete the course soon.

Jonathan Baker, one of the learners said:

“The course exceeded my expectations and I enjoyed learning the new skills”

Company founder Harry Hislop describes how the training has benefited the business:

“Jon’s new skill set has enabled him to be far more efficient in his quoting process as well as being able to now produce more effective reports. We are always looking for new opportunities to upskill the workforce.”