The warehouse staff members received their awards recently at the company headquarters in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. Yasuharu Osawa, Suzuki GB PLC's managing director for the motorcycle, ATV and marine divisions awarded the candidates, who were the first to achieve a formal qualification there.

The work-based training assessments were carried out over a nine-month period during this year, at the company’s main office. The training programme was delivered and assessed in conjunction with Milton Keynes College.

Seven of the warehouse staff achieved NVQ level two in warehouse and distribution, three team leaders reached level two NVQ in team leading and two managers reached the level three NVQ in management. Level two is the equivalent of a GCSE or A’ Level course and all of the staff members had elements of customer service and health and safety as part of the course.

The opportunity to study for an NVQ certificate forms part of the organisation’s overall strategy to increase the skills of the workforce through the Suzuki Academy, the company's in-house training scheme. Suzuki is now looking at the next stage of the programme for those who gained their award in 2008.

Andy Franks, operations manager of the Parts and Accessories Division, Suzuki GB, said: "The NVQ qualification provides a formal recognition of the achievement, hard work and dedication by staff which we witness on a daily basis, whilst also offering a comprehensive platform for their career progression within the business. We started this training programme nine months ago and before this we had nothing like this at all. There was no formal training for the warehouse staff, all we had was an internal skills matrix. From my point of view we have embarked on a major training scheme which is aside from the Suzuki Academy.”

He added: “One of the goals that I wanted to achieve as part of this was to become a school of excellence for warehousing. Therefore, we worked with the local college and I would like us in the future to become affiliated with Milton Keynes College. From a staffing point of view it demonstrated an investment in our employees. It is a way to reward staff not just through remuneration as qualifications are yours for life.

"It also showed loyalty and commitment to our workforce. People always want to be rewarded with more money, but this has benefits for the individual by gaining qualifications through the workplace. If you are going to work and earn money, why not earn yourself a qualification while you are there."

Franks said: “The benefits to us as a company are the competencies gained through this, so everybody wins. We already have the Suzuki Academy aside from the NVQ qualification. The next step is that I would like to go forward with the costing for the NVQ for next year, and we are already discussing with the candidates about going up to the next level of NVQ.

“It is good for personal development and succession planning. It also gives employees a better grounding to carry out the training modules in the Suzuki Academy. We look forward to next year's programme which is set to attract an even greater number of participants as our newly-introduced training initiative goes from strength to strength."

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