Synergy Wins Prestigious National Training Award
Training Synergy (Part of The Synergy Group) has received a National Training Award in partnership with the London Borough of Redbridge for its innovative Kickstart Programme.
Nominated in the ‘Partnership and Collaboration’ category, Training Synergy impressed judges with its ground-breaking recruitment and training programme which it implemented on behalf of Redbridge Council. Most notably, the recruitment drive was commended for successfully and affordably filling 50 vacant revenues, benefits and customer service positions during the past five years in the region.
Kickstart, which is the first recruitment and training programme of its kind in the UK, allows individuals without public sector experience to retrain into a chosen sector with a view to gaining a specific role.
The aim is to create the opportunity for candidates without relevant experience to apply their transferable skills and life experience to roles that would otherwise have been closed to them – giving them role specific training from the interview process onwards.
Working in partnership with Training Synergy, Redbridge Council used Kickstart to not only market and advertise relevant job vacancies in the local area, but to screen and manage potential candidates through assessments and training to find the right employees for the roles.
Niall Shanahan, senior training consultant at Training Synergy comments: “This award is testament to our shared belief that by engaging local people and providing them with the right training, it is possible to create highly skilled motivated staff whilst at the same time regenerating the local community.”
Peter Ratnarajah, chief payments and benefits officer at Redbridge Council, adds: “Programmes like Kickstart support the creation of local job opportunities, especially when they are well executed and confidently handled. Traditional methods of recruitment and training would not have brought the calibre of candidates we have secured for our vacant revenues, benefits and customer service roles.
“Many of the attendees to the assessment days were people from the local community, some of which were unemployed, so to give these candidates an opportunity to get back into work is a big bonus and supports our regeneration programmes, which we are 100 per cent committed to.”