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, MP

Rt Hon The Lord Eric Pickles, MP

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 The Rt Hon Theresa May MP.

The Rt Hon Theresa May MP's Foreword For The Parliamentary Review

By The Rt Hon Theresa May MP

This foreword from the then Prime Minister appeared in the 2018/19 Parliamentary Review.

British politics provides ample material for analysis in the pages of The Parliamentary Review. For Her Majesty’s Government, our task in the year ahead is clear: to achieve the best Brexit deal for Britain and to carry on our work to build a more prosperous and united country – one that truly works for everyone.

The right Brexit deal will not be sufficient on its own to secure a more prosperous future for Britain. We also need to ensure that our economy is ready for what tomorrow will bring. Our Modern Industrial Strategy is our plan to do that. It means Government stepping up to secure the foundations of our productivity: providing an education system that delivers the skills our economy needs, improving school standards and transforming technical education; delivering infrastructure for growth; ensuring people have the homes they need in the places they want to live. It is all about taking action for the long-term that will pay dividends in the future.

But it also goes beyond that. Government, the private sector and academia working together as strategic partners achieve far more than we could separately. That is why we have set an ambitious goal of lifting UK public and private research and development investment to 2.4 per cent of GDP by 2027. It is why we are developing four Grand Challenges, the big drivers of social and economic change in the world today: harnessing artificial intelligence and the data revolution; leading in changes to the future of mobility; meeting the challenges of our ageing society; and driving ahead the revolution in clean growth. By focusing our efforts on making the most of these areas of enormous potential, we can develop new exports, grow new industries and create more good jobs in every part of our country.

Years of hard work and sacrifice from the British people have got our deficit down by over three quarters. We are building on this success by taking a balanced approach to public spending. We are continuing to deal with our debts, so that our economy can remain strong and we can protect people’s jobs, and at the same time we are investing in vital public services, like our NHS. We have set out plans to increase NHS funding annually by an average by 3.4 percent in real terms: that is £394 million a week more. In return, the NHS will produce a ten-year plan, led by doctors and nurses, to eliminate waste and improve patient care.

I believe that Britain can look to the future with confidence. We are leaving the EU and setting a new course for prosperity as a global trading nation. We have a Modern Industrial Strategy that is strengthening the foundations of our economy and helping us to seize the opportunities of the future. We are investing in the public services we all rely on and helping them to grow and improve. Building on our country’s great strengths – our world-class universities and researchers, our excellent services sector, our cutting edge manufacturers, our vibrant creative industries, our dedicated public servants – we can look towards a new decade that is ripe with possibility. The government I lead is doing all it can to make that brighter future a reality for everyone in our country.

British politics provides ample material for analysis in the pages of The Parliamentary Review

The Rt Hon Theresa May MP
Prime Minister