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Industrial and management training courses
News Release from: Automotive Academy
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 05 February 2007
Training initiative for manufacturing
employees
Group Lotus and the Automotive Academy have joined forces with City College Norwich and the East of England Learning and Skills Council to create a new training initiative for Lotus employees.
In an increasingly competitive and crowded market place car manufacturers face a constant challenge to remain at the leading edge Group Lotus and the Automotive Academy have joined forces with City College Norwich and the East of England Learning and Skills Council to rise to this challenge by creating a new training initiative for Lotus employees
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 13 Apr 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
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Lotus, like all the leading car manufacturers, needs to make continual improvements in order to stay competitive and this training initiative is crucial in helping them maintain their position as a market leader and to ensure their workforce maintains its world class standards.
The initiative importantly focuses on unlocking the extra potential of employees by enabling them to make step improvements to the work environment, to quality, cost reduction, and delivery using best practice continuous improvement techniques.
These steps are key to sustainability for the business in the long run.
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Lotus have committed to taking 350 Lotus manufacturing and engineering staff through the training - which covers business practices, statutory law, health and safety, effective team working, work place organisation, visual management systems and problem solving.
As well, the company has importantly committed to allow staff the time and space to effect the changes they have identified.
All trainees who complete the course will receive a first class nationally recognised NVQ qualification.
All the material for the Business Improvement Techniques training was put together by the Automotive Academy in conjunction with world-class experts and specialists in the field, the Academy then trained the trainers in Lotus and City College Norwich.
The units themselves have the added benefit to the employee of being applicable in every working business environment.
The fact the trainees have to provide evidence that they have absorbed the underpinning knowledge and applied it in a real working scenario, helps the management to see the real tangible and sustainable results.
Lotus sees the programme, which is actively supported with regional funding by the local LSC, as a benchmark for this type of training.
John Vigar, Manager for Continuous Improvement Manufacturing Business Coordination at Lotus said: "This has been a fantastic opportunity for Lotus and the management can already see the value the partnership with the Automotive Academy, the LSC and the local college.
The local workforce here at Hethel is very willing to do things differently.
They have shown a real enthusiasm for the training and a great appreciation of the chance for enhancing their personal development and to embrace the continuous improvement philosophy." John Bradley, Spoke Manager for the London and East region, commented: "The Academy is dedicated to ensuring that the UK automotive industry has access to globally competitive training in order to retain the key players such as Lotus in the Automotive Industry.
Lotus has a great product and great people and this training should help equip them with the tools to sustain the continuous improvements necessary to remain a world class performer." The Automotive Academy, led by the UK's leading automotive companies, promotes globally competitive standards of training, skill development, and delivery throughout the UK's automotive industry.
It supports the whole supply chain, not just vehicle manufacturers, to encourage universal best practice set against the Academy's stringent validation process.
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