In support of the Government’s sector-based work academy initiative, Smart Development, the professional training arm of Smart Solutions, is working with Jobcentre Plus to deliver innovative pre-employment courses that prepare job-seekers for a career in the waste and recycling industry.
Smart Development’s pre-employment training course, the first of its kind in the waste industry, offers job seekers a short-term introduction to career opportunities available within the growing waste and recycling sector. The unique course offers candidates a taste of life in a waste environment and provides training across a range of core skills and competencies required by workers in the industry.
The two week course, which has been taken by over 70 candidates in England over the past three months, is funded by the skills funding agency and delivered by Smart Development in partnership with Jobcentre Plus and some of the country’s leading waste companies, including Biffa, Casepak UPM and AmeyCespa.
Speaking of the courses, Steffan Edwards, Commercial Director at Smart Development said: “Our innovative pre-employment courses are proving extremely popular with leading businesses from across the sector as they are effectively producing candidates who are equipped and ready for work in the waste and recycling industry.
“The two week courses act as an extended interview period and give businesses a unique opportunity to get to know candidates before potentially offering them employment at the end of the process. The courses are also proving effective at improving staff retention rates as workers entering the industry through the scheme are fully aware of what to expect from the job, having already been given a day’s work experience and a taste of life at a facility.”
Those enrolled on the course are given a combination of on-site and classroom based training in order to prepare them for work at a site, both in theory and in practice. Participants are each guaranteed an interview at the end of the process and over half of the candidates to have sat the course to-date have gone on to employment within the sector.
Paul Greenwell, Managing Director of AmeyCespa said: “We are pleased to be working with Smart Development to deliver these innovative pre-employment courses to aspiring waste workers. By giving candidates a taste of life in the industry and developing their knowledge and understanding of the sector, Smart Development is helping to equip a generation of workers with the necessary skills to walk straight into employment in a waste environment.“
Russell Jahn, a recent graduate of the Smart Development pre-employment course and now an employee at UPM, said: “I came into my current role with limited waste experience, I worked as a sort line operative initially and then progressed into a team leader role, I am now the shift manager and responsible for the day to day running of the plant. The recycling sector has given me a career that I can be proud of.”
The Government’s Sector Based Work Academy initiative is a range of new measures introduced to get Britain working. The courses are designed to help businesses meet their immediate and future recruitment needs by enabling employers to recruit a workforce with the right skills to sustain and grow their business. The key feature of sector-based work academies is that they offer a flexible approach and can be adapted to meet the needs of each business.
Smart Development provides bespoke, long-term development programmes that facilitate learning across a range of core competences, including Waste management. Smart Solutions is a leading provider of workforce management solutions to the waste and recycling industry and currently supports over a quarter of WRAP registered MRFs in the UK, with an average of 2,500 workers on site every day.
Smart Development has delivered six waste and recycling pre-employment courses in the past two months and the company plans to hold further two courses each month across the UK in 2013. To find out more about the courses and to register interest in attending a pre-employment course, visit www.smartsd.co.uk.
