Apprenticeships are back in vogue, it seems. And as they can offer a recognised qualification while delivering company-specific knowledge and skills, it's no wonder.
The Punch Academy Apprenticeship Programme is the jewel in the crown of a swathe of new and re-vamped training initiatives recently launched by the pub company. A major aim of this new programme is to improve staff retention. "We knew through internal research that if you've got a stable team in a pub, that works better," explains David Mayes, group training and qualifications manager. "The idea is very much around ensuring that we can recruit, develop and retain the best people."
The launch of the apprenticeship scheme helps Punch meet its commitment to the government's Skills Pledge, to improve staff skills. And the new training initiatives follow on from Punch's Operational Excellence programme, unveiled last year. Mayes said this has made the company look at the way it operates and simplify ways of working but has also led them to look at the recruitment and training of everyone from head office staff to managed pub staff and licensees. The company found some were leaving because they wanted a job where they could get training and a qualifications.
The scheme was launched last month across two of the five Punch regions - North Scotland and the West - and 120 apprentices have already signed up. Punch knew the programme would be popular, as its research had already found that 80 per cent of staff who took its NVQ programme would recommend it to a colleague.
Mayes adds: "From exit interviews we know people were wanting to gain qualifications at work. This is part of our business strategy and HR strategy to develop our team at the pub level."
An all-round education
However, the apprenticeship - which replaces the NVQ scheme - takes the training up a level, according to Mayes. "It's a job-specific qualification but is also driving their literacy and numeracy," he says. "It's an issue across the industry that one in four leave school without being at the required levels of literacy and numeracy."
The apprenticeship scheme is designed to follow on from Punch's 13-week base training. Those wishing to become apprentices have to be backed by their manager and the area manager.
The job-specific areas covered by the scheme include: a front-of house qualification, covering food and drink service, back-of-house, covering food processing; and a qualification covering customer service for Punch staff working in its Wacky Warehouses. The apprenticeship is equivalent to five GCSEs and is being overseen by the Charnwood Training group. On top of literacy and numeracy skills there is a focus on communication.
But the apprenticeship is not the only training Punch has recently introduced. It has revised its kitchen manager induction and development programme to make it a 12-week structured course, including a week spent with an area support chef.
Manuals are also provided for the kitchen managers to take away. Another big difference is that they now also get duty manager training.
"Now if we need them to run a shift they can," says Mayes. "It opens them up to the bigger business and opens them up to shift management and front-of-house practices, broadening their interests and involvement in the business."
On the leased side of the business Punch has opened up to lessees the e-learning courses that were previously available only to the managed side of the business. Mayes says: "It's really about giving more support to our partners - helping them train their staff."
They now have access to courses on food hygiene, health and safety, licensing law and - a new course specifically tailored to lessees - cellar management. These are provided by external training and e-learning company Third Force.
Punch also offers a series of 'Advance your Business' workshops such as 'Profit through Service and Sales'. Mayes argues that "service is critical" and is one of the few things that pubs can offer the consumer that they can't get at home. "Why would you go out if you're not going to get good service?" he says.
In a similar vein, Punch has also developed with Third Force the e-learning course 'profit through sport', designed to help pubs make the most of the World Cup, learn from the experience and apply that learning to other sporting events.
Punch has also just won a BII NITA Social Responsibilities Award for its 'Profit through Energy' workshop, available for managed houses, and its 'how big is your carbon footprint?' course for lessees.
On the managed side of the business, Punch provides its managers with a 'retention toolkit'. Containing thing such as team review sheets, information on career pathways within the company, DVDs and guides to coaching and presenting, the kit is intended to help managers train and develop their teams, and ultimately retain staff and skills within the business.
View from the trainer
"The key point for employers is that apprenticeships attract healthy funding and will continue to do so even after the elections," says Jeremy Scorer, managing partner of Charnwood Training Group. "Both the Conservatives and Labour support them."
Charnwood has been delivering training schemes for the past 12 years and specialises in hospitality and catering. The company is overseeing Punch's apprenticeship scheme and providing the pubco with independent and impartial assessment. "We visit its venues periodically to make sure the practices and learning are reaching regional standards of competence," says Scorer. "My team are licensees, hoteliers and restaurateurs. It affords us the ability to give purposeful training back to the sector."
Scorer is East Midlands chairman of the BII and was a publican for almost 20 years before co-founding Charnwood. He says that the traditional perception that NVQs are boring and repetitive is changing. The training firm has just won an award from government information technology body Becta, for its use of technologies such as video, in training delivery. Scorer adds: "Punch is very keen to embrace learning technology. We are developing videos and other interactive material. It's the way forward."