On Tuesday 6th December, Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, welcomed 46 organisations to Banqueting House in London to celebrate successfully achieving a Princess Royal Training Award for their commitment to training and development.
The Princess Royal Training Awards recognise employers across the United Kingdom who deliver outstanding training and development programmes that have had a direct impact on their people and organisations. This year, applications were made from a wide range of organisations from large multi-nationals through to small not-for-profits.
Kirstie Donnelly MBE, Chief Executive of City & Guilds said: “This year we have seen applications from a range of organisations who have prioritised the development of their teams, as they continue to operate in a challenging context. I am delighted that we are able to recognise 46 fantastic employers who place value on training their employees. From inclusion and diversity, through to programmes addressing the ongoing impact of climate change and tackling skills shortages in certain sectors – organisations are using training to address these issues. It’s an honour to come together and celebrate these organisations’ shared and unrelenting commitment to learning and development.”
At this year’s ceremony, employers Santander, Christies Care and Travis Perkins were welcomed onto the stage for a panel discussion about the impact of their award-winning programmes.
Travis Perkins explained how they used the apprenticeship levy to create a Learn and Earn Apprenticeship programme which addresses the male-dominated and ageing workforce demographic typical for the construction sector. The impact on the company is still being realised, but 35.2% of this year’s applicants are female, the average age of recruits is now 25 and BAME representation has increased from 1.2 to 6.2%.
Christies Care were revalidated for their induction programme initially awarded in 2017. In 2021 the pass rate for the Carer Induction was 93%, compared with 90% in 2017. By introducing online learning, Christies Care were able to upscale their provision quickly during the pandemic and continue training carers at a time of peak demand and immense pressure. The programme accommodated this demand and was popular with carers. Client satisfaction also remained positive and its reputation for highly trained carers remained unchanged.
Santander described how they tackled the increasing number of customers becoming victims of scams during the pandemic by creating a staff training programme. This led to an impressive reduction in losses to customers from £12.5m in 2021 to just £20k in 2022.
Five organisations also received a special commendation for demonstrating a significant commitment to inclusion and diversity. Those commended for their Inclusion and Diversity initiatives in 2022 include Greene King, Labcorp, IBM UK Ltd, Sheppey Matters and UK Electronic Skills Organisation.
