Somerset College

The Bay Tree Food Company discuss how training their workforce benefited them,

The company, based in Westcombe, has grown from its humble beginnings in a farmhouse kitchen to become one of the West Country’s major employers. It was also named Somerset Business of the Year in 2008.

Nigel Hodgson, General Manager, explained the motivation behind implementing their training programme: ‘We wanted to bring all our staff to the same standard, to ensure that every part of the process was right. We can be artisan and professional at the same time.’

Lisa Locke, Manufacturing Manager, said: ‘The training was fully funded through Train to Gain. We discussed the different options and tailored the NVQ to our particular needs.’

All the training was completed in-house. Lisa continued: ‘Some staff were reticent to begin with, they were worried how the content of the NVQ would relate to procedures in large organisations which they knew nothing about. When they realised there was no compulsory homework and we wanted The Bay Tree way of doing things central to the training, we had everyone on board.’

Fitting the training into the production schedule was key. Nigel explained: ‘We had to use the quieter months. The flexibility of the scheme allowed the shop floor staff to be trained quickly and with minimal impact on the business.’

Although it is early days there have already been benefits to the business.

Nigel said: ‘We have staff who are now writing an operations manual for their area. Through the training there has been an understanding for the need for procedures and consistency.’