Skills for Growth helps Lovat’s Group cater to their business goals

Skills for Growth is a fully-funded service for companies with between five and 250 employees and helps employers identify and understand their skills needs. A detailed Employer Action Plan is developed with guidance towards the most relevant training, funding and local business support which is based on their identified skills needs. 

Pam said “We had a call with Kathryn, and we then underwent a process of speaking with staff to get their insight into challenges they faced and ways to make Lovat’s Group a great place to work and to enable them to be part of our growth journey. We then got a people skills action plan, followed by an employer action plan.

“Actions from the plan included accessing funding which allowed us to undertake some training. We were introduced to Fife College as a learning provider for our Modern Apprenticeships.

“At the moment we have three apprentices – two doing business admin and one engineering apprentice. This supports our strategy of not only creating jobs in the Fife area, but also creating apprenticeship opportunities for young people. We also work closely with DYW in Fife.”

“We got involved with Fife Healthy Workplaces, helping signpost us to things for staff, like counselling services for employees and having access to their Workforce Wellbeing toolkit. We’ve undertaken leadership management courses and recruited an Operations Director to support the day-to-day running and growth of the business.

“We’ve been put in contact with a number of initiatives which we wouldn’t have been aware of if it wasn’t for Skills for Growth. We also got access to funding which enabled us to upskill our engineers in green skills.”

Pam continued: “Kathryn is always there to help and support us. If we do need some help, we just get in touch with her. She’s still there supporting us and signposting us to any new training or upskilling initiatives.”

Kathryn Hill, Employee Engagement Executive with Skills Development Scotland said: “From my first introduction with Mike and Pam they showed such a passion to bring the staff onboard with their growth plans. This meant identifying skills gaps and looking at ways to have the best foundation to enable their plans.

“Their workforce was always at the heart of everything, and this has been proved over the years I have been working with them. I’ve really enjoyed watching them go from strength to strength.”

The company have seen a big difference in staff engagement. Pam said: “We’ve been able to develop our junior staff with training and our engineers with green skills, we’ve improved our induction process for new employees and now have a cloud-based HR system.

“We’ve got structured performance reviews and development plans in place for each employee. We’ve engaged with SMAS and as a result introduced LEAN principles which has improved efficiencies within our warehouse operations. Our next step is to improve our recruitment process and strategy, as this is biggest challenge faced with many businesses in our sector. We’ve introduced a 4.5 day working week, which enables our employees to have an improved work-life balance.”

The company has recently opened an office in Midlothian as part of their growth strategy. They’ve gone from having 30 employees to now having 48.

Pam added: “I would absolutely 100% recommend Skills for Growth to other businesses. It’s made a massive difference to us as a small business. It’s been wonderful for us, our staff and our business growth.”