SPG Newsletter Issue 1

ThePeople
The Team Newsletter of Spring 2019
IPAF & PASMA
Training Day
Jargon-Busting
CSP Reaches Out
HR Update
What Brexit?
PET News

Group
Finance
Ant’s Doing
Just Finance
Anthony Morris has been an
Accounts Assistant with CSP
for over a year and recently
passed 3 exams in his first
year of his CIMA & Accounting
degree; Management Accounts,
Organisational Management
and Financial Accounting.
Well done Ant!
A Huge Thank You!
In the run up to Christmas an
audit that was requested by
a prime with a short timeline
to complete meant extra hours
for many members of staff.
Quality
The Directors would like to
thank everyone who helped in
some way to producing the
result that we achieved. It was
an outstanding team effort!
Sir Robert McAlpine Training
and Jargon-Busting Session
Dane Wadsworth and Tom
Armstrong visited Sir Robert
McAlpine’s office in Hemel
Hempstead on 10th December
2018 to conduct a training
session for the new Shared
Booking system they set up.
To give you a bit of context,
a team of two training
coordinators was integrated
with four other members of
staff (who have never dealt
with training requests before)
meaning their collective
knowledge about how to
interpret requests, what
questions to ask and what
acronyms mean wasn’t ideal
for the new role they were
about to take on.
Given this, Tom, our Quality
and Compliance Director
and Dane, their Key Account
Manager, conducted a jargonbusting
training session lasting
around three hours explaining
the different awarding bodies
(PASMA, IPAF, SSP), types of
courses (CPCS vs NPORS) and
how we deal with their requests;
finishing with a Q&A session.
The feedback was very positive,
and the team were enthusiastic
and welcoming of the training.
ThePeople: Team Newsletter of the Skills People Group Spring 2019

Funding
Brexit? What Brexit?
As many of you will know we
are currently coming towards
then end of the current ESF
contract with all the funded
qualifications we are working
on having to be completed by
the end of March 2019.
Despite all the talk around Brexit
you will be please to hear that the
Funding Team are in the middle
of securing major ESF funding
contracts across England that will
allow us support the construction
sector well into the year 2020.
Thanks to the hard work put in
by all departments across the
business during the current round
of ESF funding, CSP have
a brilliant reputation for
delivering the qualifications
that employers need and that
reputation is allowing us to win
more ESF funding that is set to
be available to use from the
start of April 2019.
At the time of writing we are
receiving news about contracts
we have won but due to the standdown
period we are forbidden
from formally declaring them.
As soon as we can release the
information we will make sure
everyone in the business gets
the good news!
Construction
Practising what we Preach
The Business Development Team
have been hard at work selling
both commercial training and
providing our clients with funding
to allow their staff to achieve
Level 2 NVQs that are required
for the construction sector
under the CSCS and CPCS card
schemes. As a company we now
regularly work with over 75% of
the UK’s top 100 construction
companies.
PASMA and IPAF training course
to increase their knowledge
of these popular courses and
they tried first-hand operating
a scissor lift and assembling an
aluminium scaffold tower. All
who attended reported that they
found the training course both
useful and interesting.
Luke Atkinson building an aluminium
scaffold tower – part of the PASMA course.
CSP take the view that we can
only properly advise our clients
on what courses they require if
our sales team have sufficient
knowledge
about the
courses
we offer,
so during
December
several
of the
sales team
attended a
CSP can now offer our clients
Electrical courses, and we now
offer Mental First Aid courses,
both of which being positively
received by our clients and we
will be looking to expand our
portfolio of courses still further
as we progress through 2019.
ThePeople: Team Newsletter of the Skills People Group Spring 2019

Quality
Shining a Light on Stress
Excessive pressure and demands at work can cause
stress. This can lead to chronic physical and mental
health conditions.
Do the right thing and protect workers from
work-related stress.
Below is a link to the HSE website for dealing
with work-related stress:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/gohomehealthy/stress.htm
It features 3 videos on how to deal with stress for
managers and operatives.
Self-discipline
There are many important qualities
that can contribute to a person’s
achievements and happiness at
home and in the work place, but
there is only one that produces
sustainable, long term success in
all aspects of life: self-discipline!
Whether in terms of your diet,
fitness, work ethic or relationships,
self-discipline is the number
one trait needed to accomplish
goals, lead a healthy life style and
ultimately be happy at both work
and home!
Try these four simple steps and see if they work after just one week!
To improve your own self-discipline,
test out these 4 proven methods
for gaining better control of your
time, resources and lifestyle.
To help establish good habits,
break bad ones and improve
your control by making simple
changes to your everyday routine.
Improved self-discipline will allow
you to live a freer life by helping
you make healthy choices, not
emotional ones.
1. Remove temptations
Self-discipline is easiest when abiding
to the old saying ‘out of sight, out of
mind’. Remove all temptations and
distractions, eg:
Mobile phone – switch it off or do
not answer it for an hour a day
(Your Time)
Junk food – don’t buy it or store it
in your house/work. Have a 1-week
period free of burger/pizza etc. then
do it for a month, you will find you
don’t need junk food!
2. Eat regularly, healthily
and drink water
When you are hungry your ability to
concentrate suffers. Allow your brain
to focus on your goals vs your growing
hunger urges.
3. Don’t wait for it to feel right
Action creates motivation. Just do it!
4. Schedule breaks, treats
and rewards
Self discipline can be hard, reward
your effort through moderation.
If you achieve a goal, treat yourself!
ThePeople: Team Newsletter of the Skills People Group Spring 2019

Construction
The Right
Tools for
the Job
Construction Skills People
have recently teamed up
with On The Tools to help
promote our courses.
With over 2.9 million followers
on Facebook, On The Tools is
the largest construction-based
social media network in the
UK. They have appointed CSP
as their construction training
provider of choice, allowing us
to reach many more potential
customers and learners.
The CSP-sponsored episode of ‘Quids In’ had 70,000+ views and 9,000+ comments.
PROUD TO SPONSOR
THIS FRIDAY, 12:15PM ON
CSP recently sponsored an
episode of On The Tools’
popular weekly online game
show ‘Quids In’. The show
received over 70,000 views
and over 9,000 comments
on Facebook.
Watch the show
On The Tools have also
produced a light-hearted
introductory video about CSP
and our CSCS and CPCS NVQ
qualifications.
Watch the video
We will be uploading more
videos to our social media
feeds and our website.
Please remember to like our
videos and share them!
ThePeople: Team Newsletter of the Skills People Group Spring 2019

HR
Welcome to the Team...
We have recently expanded
the sales teams in Chesterfield
and Sheffield:
Oliver Cropper (Sheffield)
Sales Team Leader
Dane Owen (Sheffield)
Training Advisor
Kieran Mather (Sheffield)
Training Advisor
Anita Fresson (Sheffield)
Pre-Employment Tutor
Craig Hanby (Sheffield)
Employer Engagement Manager
We also recently welcomed:
Andrew Heseltine
Business Operations Manager
Andrew Ward
Lead Training & Delivery Tutor
Melissa McSweeney
Reception Administrator
Moving Up
Janine Finn has changed role
from Qualifications Administrator
to Programme Progression
Coordinator
This quarter there
are five people
receiving two
additional days
annual holiday.
Enjoy!
Staff
Survey
HR have been focussing
on Training & Development
and requested all staff to
complete an online survey
to establish training
needs.
Emma Williams
Andrew Topham
James Seaton
David Proctor
Dominic Fletcher
Saul Asquith has been promoted
from Training Advisor to
Business Development Manager
Congratulations to both!
Oliver Cropper
Dane Owen
Anita Fresson
Craig Hanby
Saul Asquith
Refer a Friend
and we’ll give
you £250!
If you refer someone
you know for a role
with us and they
successfully complete
their probation we’ll
give you £250 cash!
Andrew Heseltine
Andrew Ward
Melissa McSweeney
Someone you know?
Pre-Employment
Barrow Boys
Secure Roles
A group of 8 learners from Groundworks,
Barrow recently completed their SIA
course, which is linked to job with Securitas.
The photo show learners having just
completed their induction with Skills People
Group, before starting the course.
ThePeople: Team Newsletter of the Skills People Group Spring 2019

Pre-Employment
Pre-employment Update
The PET Sales & Delivery Teams
are working hard in recruiting
and planning courses to deliver
across the country in a variety
of vocational sectors such
as Construction, Cleaning,
Warehousing and Customer
Service.
The funding team have also
been busy in gaining new future
funding opportunities for us
to deliver pre-employment
programmes with the RNN & LCB
Group along with DTS Learn-
Direct in Bath, Bristol, Somerset
and Gloucestershire.
In addition to the opportunities
this funding brings, we are
also busy recruiting for more
employed/associate tutors to
meet this demand – so if anyone
knows of a tutor(s) who would
Skills on Show at Anfield
Malcolm French (Business
Engagement Manager) attended
the LCR Skills Exhibition on behalf
of Skills People Group recently held
at Liverpool Football Club ‘Anfield’.
Exhibition in March 2019 as we are
now working with Local Councils,
be interested in working for
C&G Assessments please give us
a call on 0114 251 1584 or direct
on extension 210.
Finally, would like to say a big
thanks to Rob Petrucci who will
be retiring from the company
in May to emigrate to a sunnier
climate in Malta – we wish him
good health and happiness.
Employers and
Jobcentreplus’ in the area.
Skills People Group were given
a stand in a prime location and
we where able to make valuable
connections with ‘Back to work
providers’ and employers alike.
Skills People Group will also
be attending the Knowsley LCR
Malcolm French manning the PET stand
A-spiring for Success
Rob Petrucci recently delivered a successful Level 1 Introduction
to Construction course in Chesterfield. The feedback from all the
learners was very positive and we wish them well in the future.
JCPs on Board
James Seaton has struck some
great relationships with some
new JCPs since December. In
particular, Cannock, Bridgnorth,
Whitchurch & Shrewsbury all
have courses booked with us in
January and February. We also
have a partnership with Reed in
Partnership after a successful
meeting before the Christmas
shut down and they have a course
running with us in February.
We have had two courses booked
through Inspiring The Young in
Birmingham which are booked for
February along with Newbury JCP
booking a construction course
through us in February with a
second course tagging onto this.
ThePeople: Team Newsletter of the Skills People Group Spring 2019

Charity
Skills People Group and our
staff regularly raise funds for
both local and national charities
including Ashgate Hospicecare
and Cancer Research.
The total that we raised during
2018 was an incredible:
£9,040
A huge thank you for all your
efforts and generosity!
ovember
During November, no less than
9 members of staff participated
in the ‘Movember’ event to
raise awareness of men’s health
issues, such as prostate cancer,
testicular cancer and suicide.
The ‘Magnificent Nine’ were:
Steve Henderson
Andy Perry
Anthony Hubbard
Dominic Fletcher
Stuart Brown
Neil Russell
Joe Travis
Alan Halfyear
Kam Karamdad
Together they raised a total of
£650 which was matched by
the company, resulting in an
impressive total of £1,300.
What a fan-tash-tic effort!
Pre-Employment
Away with the Fairies...
Skills People Group recently partnered with Liverpool City
Council to run an Introduction to Cleaning Principles & COSHH
pre-employment training course to provide local employer
Eco Fairies with trained and motivated candidates.
Jules Gordon (Eco Fairies): “We were contacted by Malcolm French who
suggested we look at an alternative way of recruiting for our vacancies.
Malcolm described the Skills People Group training course and this really
appealed to us as we would be giving local people an opportunity in our
community as well as getting the chance to interview trained candidates
who are genuinely looking for work!”
Cathy Clements (Liverpool Into Work): “I had set up a Cleaning training
course with Malcolm and he approached me with an employer he had
been talking to recently. We decided to join forces to offer our candidates
interviews and a real chance of employment. This resulted in interviews
and job offers for completing candidates. Skills People Group provided a
professional and supportive delivery to all our learners and we look forward
to many more opportunities to work with them in the future.”
Malcolm concluded: “This was a perfect opportunity to partner with a
local employer and Liverpool City Council to offer a real opportunity to
learners, it’s so important to give unemployed people the motivation to
complete our courses by providing a real chance of employment.”
No. 1 in Manchester
In February Skills People Group joined forces with One Manchester (part
of Manchester City Council Community Housing) to offer their clients a
training course in ‘Introduction to Construction’ leading to a CSCS Card.
Pat Eaves (One Manchester):
“I was approached by Malcolm French, offering various pre-employment
training courses for our unemployed clients in community housing. The
timing was perfect as our construction company were offering work
experience for people with a CSCS Card and training. We ran a course
in early 2019 and several of the completing candidates are now on a
work experience programme with our builders. We have since booked
another course with Malcolm which is due to start in March.”
Kam pictured in mid-Movember
Other News
Working
with Muppets!
Lauren Round, a Lead
Administrator based at
Chesterfield, got quite a shock
recently while checking a
candidate’s eligibility to receive
funding… as the picture shows!
Lauren eventually found the actual
copy of the candidate’s passport
in the profiling pack, so as far as
the candidate was concerned it
wasn’t ‘time to face the music’!
ThePeople: Team Newsletter of the Skills People Group Spring 2019