Victoria Carpets awarded for their learning efforts

Victoria Carpets, located in Kidderminster, Worcester, is a textiles manufacturer, which employs 300 staff members. The Community union, which represents staff at Victoria Carpets, was delighted to see staff being presented with certificates for successfully completing their NVQ Level 2 in Performing Manufacturing Operations, on the 5th May 2011.

Terry Pye, Community's National Operations Officer and Neil Glover, Operations Director of Victoria Carpets UK presented the City & Guilds certificates. Terry Pye said:

'This is a great personal achievement for everyone involved. It shows what can be done as a result of everyone working together. We now plan to build on this initial success by encouraging more employees to take up the opportunities on offer.'

Since then, some of the staff members have gone on to achieve further qualifications in numeracy and literacy. The Community union has worked tirelessly to bring the learning agenda to Victoria Carpets, and their efforts were rewarded by the signing of a learning agreement, in partnership with the employer, on August 2010.

The learning agreement allows staff to access training, provided by the union and specialist training providers, such as Axia solutions of Stoke on Trent.

In a further initiative, the employer is committed to working with the union to develop a Business Improvement Technique (BIT) program that should enhance the prospects of staff. Martin Trickey, Branch Secretary from Victoria Carpets said:'Learning wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for the union.'

This was a joint effort by Communitas, the training arm of Community the Union, funded by the Union Learning Fund and Axia Solutions, the training provider. The company is now on a good footing to embed its learning agenda and provide further opportunities for staff to up-skill.

Adrian Southern, a ULR at Victoria Carpets said he welcomed the learning that is going ahead at the company and sees this as just the start of things to come.