Riverside Training (Spalding) Ltd

A Message from Lord Pickles and Lord Blunkett, followed by Riverside Training (Spalding) Ltd's best practice article

The ability to listen and learn from one another has always been vital in parliament, in business and in most aspects of daily life. But at this particular moment in time, as national and global events continue to reiterate, it is uncommonly crucial that we forge new channels of communication and reinforce existing ones. The following article from Riverside Training (Spalding) Ltd is an attempt to do just that. We would welcome your thoughts on this or any other Parliamentary Review article.

Rt Hon The Lord David Blunkett

Rt Hon The Lord Eric Pickles

www.riversidetrainingspalding.co.uk

THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW

Highlighting best practice

36 | RIVERSIDE TRAINING (SPALDING) LTD

Suzie Bulbeck, Founder and

Director

Riverside Training’s

head office

It has been a volatile 12 months for training and apprenticeship

providers, and Suzie Bulbeck recognises that her company,

Riverside Training, have not been immune from the adverse

factors affecting the sector. As a specialist training company,

they offer a wide range of courses in childcare, education,

health and social care, business administration, customer service

and management. Suzie talks to the

Review

about Riverside’s

journey and the issues that the government’s apprenticeship

initiative has presented.

Since we started delivering apprenticeships ten years ago, they have continued

to comprise a vast majority of our offering. In the past decade, we have delivered

more than 1,500 apprenticeships, and our achievement rate is 82 per cent – far

exceeding the national education and training apprenticeship achievement rate of

76.5 per cent in 2016/17.

Like many others in our sector, we have had our ups and downs, but we have

nonetheless remained buoyant and successful.

Our success with Spalding Primary

We have worked with Lincolnshire-based Spalding Primary School since September

2012. We enjoy an excellent working relationship, and our partnership has seen a

100 per cent success rate for the 26 apprentices employed by the school over the

past six years.

FACTS ABOUT

RIVERSIDE TRAINING

(SPALDING) LTD

»Founder and Director:

SuzieBulbeck

»Established in 2006

»Based in Spalding, Lincolnshire

»Services: Specialist training

»Matrix Standard-accredited

»In CACHE’s 2017 inspection,

we were awarded a status of

“full adherence”

»Active member of the

Association of Employment

and Learning Providers and

National Early Years Trainers

and Consultants

»www.riversidetrainingspalding.

co.uk

Riverside Training

(Spalding) Ltd

37RIVERSIDE TRAINING (SPALDING) LTD |

BEST PRACTICE REPRESENTATIVE 2019

All are initially enrolled on the CACHE

Level 3 Supporting Teaching and

Learning course, with some going on

to study further qualifications focusing

on supporting and communicating

with young children. We also intend

to develop their skills further with

the new Level 4 Certificate for the

Advanced Practitioner in Schools and

Colleges. One apprentice has even

started his teaching degree.

Matthew Cooling, Spalding Primary

School’s business manager, praised our

work: “We have found the support

provided by Riverside Training to

motivate our apprentices is second to

none. Expectations are clearly set out

at the start of the course while off-

the-job learning also reinforces what

apprentices learn in the classroom. A

structured programme keeps them

on-task to ensure they complete work

within the specified period. Additional

support is always provided for students

if the need should arise.”

The apprenticeship levy and

tender issues

Recently, the government introduced

changes to the way apprenticeships

are funded in its drive to train three

million new apprentices by 2020. We

successfully tendered to become an

apprenticeship levy main provider.

This meant that we would deliver

apprenticeship training for employers

with a total wage bill of over

£3million, who would pay a 0.5 per

cent “levy” to fund training.

Consequently, we have been listed

on the register of apprenticeship

training providers, having undergone

the Education and Skills Funding

Agency’s application process. This

took into account our due diligence,

capability, quality and financial health

in order to appropriately determine

our capability to deliver high-quality

apprenticeshiptraining.

The tender process for a slice of the

mammoth £650 million apprenticeship

funding allocation, however, was

beyond frustrating. This was necessary

if we were to work with non-levy

employers – those with an annual

wage bill of less than £3 million whose

apprenticeships are jointly funded by

themselves and the government under

co-investment.

The process tied up many, many staff

hours in time-consuming and complex

form-filling. The extended delay in

Riverside Training

students

Since we

started

delivering

apprenticeships

ten years ago,

they have

continued to

comprise a vast

majority of our

offering

“

THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW

Highlighting best practice

38 | RIVERSIDE TRAINING (SPALDING) LTD

announcing the tender result meant

that we were unable to operate day to

day with confidence – let alone plan

for the future.

Eventually, we were told that our

application had been unsuccessful.

This outcome was both unexpected

and potentially disastrous – we were

not sure that we could survive on the

income generated from levy payers

and our other courses alone.

Transformation in the face of

adversity

Facing an uncertain future, we decided

that it was essential to re-evaluate our

model. We had always specialised in

early years and childcare training, but it

became apparent that we had to think

beyond those parameters to secure our

own longevity.

The need to offer and maintain high-

quality training provision was the

underlying ethos on which our business

was founded. We knew we could not

compromise in this area. Our action

plan took a multi-pronged strategy.

Firstly, we approached Laser Learning

with the intention of expanding our

offering with online short courses. This

was a major investment; purchasing

the e-learning platform and courses

upfront was by no means cheap.

We also sourced levy-paying employers

and tendered to be included on their

Approved Apprenticeship Training

Provider List, which now enables us to

tender for individual apprenticeships.

We have also been added to similar

registers by Norfolk and Lincolnshire

County Councils. We also successfully

tendered to be included on the Diocese

of Norwich Education and Academies

Trust’s list, for whom we are already

delivering an apprenticeship.

Expanding our portfolio of qualifications

to include accountancy and digital

marketing apprenticeships was another

step in the right direction. The former is

being delivered by a specialist trainer, and

we are now accredited by The Institute

of Certified Bookkeepers. For the latter,

after identifying pre-existing digital

marketing excellence in the business,

we secured certification through

Futurequals and began offering courses.

Additionally, we have successfully

tendered through Calderdale College,

Halifax, to deliver Skills Support for the

Workforce programmes inLincolnshire.

After recognising the success of our

robust subcontracting arrangement

in place with Chiltern Training as a

supporting provider, we sought a second

partnership. We now work closely with

Enable, a voluntary and community

sector learning and skills consortium

that serves the East Midlands. These

two relationships enable us to deliver

non-levy apprenticeships to SMEs.

Our journey has not been an easy

one, and we are well aware that

it isn’t over yet. There are more

avenues for diversification that we

wish to investigate to ensure further

prosperity and success in an otherwise

difficult sector. Nonetheless, I am

now confident that we have a firm

foundation from which to continue,

and I look to the future with hope.

Facing an

uncertain

future, we

decided that it

was essential

to re-evaluate

our model

“

We offer courses across

a broad range of areas

www.riversidetrainingspalding.co.uk

This article was sponsored by Riverside Training (Spalding) Ltd. The Parliamentary Review is wholly funded by the representatives who write for it. The publication in which this article originally appeared contained the following foreword from Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng.

Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng's Foreword For The Parliamentary Review

By Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng

This year’s Parliamentary Review reflects on a tumultuous and extraordinary year, globally and nationally. As well as being an MP, I am a keen student of history, and I am conscious that 2020 would mark the end of an era. It will be remembered as the year in which we concluded Brexit negotiations and finally left the European Union. Above all, it will be remembered as the year of Covid-19.

In our fight against the pandemic, I am delighted that our vaccination programme is beginning to turn the tide – and I pay tribute to the British businesses, scientists and all those who have helped us to achieve this. But the virus has dealt enormous damage, and we now have a duty to rebuild our economy.

We must ensure that businesses are protected. We have made more than £350 billion available to that end, with grants, business rates relief and our furlough scheme supporting more than 11 million people and jobs in every corner of the country, maintaining livelihoods while easing the pressure on employers. The next step is to work with business to build back better and greener, putting the net zero carbon challenge at the heart of our recovery. This is a complex undertaking, but one which I hope will be recognised as a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Through the prime minister’s ten point plan for a green industrial revolution, we can level up every region of the UK, supporting 250,000 green jobs while we accelerate our progress towards net zero carbon emissions.

With our commitment to raise R&D spending to 2.4% of GDP and the creation of the Advanced Research & Invention Agency, we are empowering our fantastic researchers to take on groundbreaking research, delivering funding with flexibility and speed. With this approach, innovators will be able to work with our traditional industrial heartlands to explore new technologies, and design and manufacture the products on which the future will be built – ready for export around the globe.

And I believe trade will flourish. We are a leading nation in the fight against climate change. As the host of COP26 this year, we have an incredible opportunity to market our low-carbon products and expertise. Our departure from the EU gives us the chance to be a champion of truly global free trade; we have already signed trade deals with more than 60 countries around the world.

As we turn the page and leave 2020 behind, I am excited about the new chapter which Britain is now writing for itself, and for the opportunities which lie ahead of us.

Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng
Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy