5,000 training courses for employees in Leeds City Region

More than 5,000 training courses have been undertaken by employees across the Leeds City Region since February 2015 with support from the LEP..

Businesses have upskilled staff in everything from project management to welding qualifications with over £3m worth of training grants from the LEP’s skills service. Companies have also taken advantage of the wider support offered from the service including help with sourcing training provision and creating skills plans.

One firm that has benefitted is Skipton based Broughton Laboratories, a medical technologies business specialising in analysing and testing pharmaceutical products. Broughton Laboratories turned to the LEP for support to undertake training which would set the foundations for future development.

Broughton Laboratories has demonstrated growth since its incorporation in 2006. It has gone from employing two staff to 48, and turnover has also been steadily increasing, currently standing at £2.6 million. The company is expecting turnover to rise to £3.3m at the end of the financial year.

The company have ambitious plans for the future and are set to move from their current site into bespoke premises more than quadruple the current size. The company is anticipating the creation over 60 new jobs in the next three years, and has longer term aspirations of employing 120 and seeing turnover rise to £10m by 2021.

Broughton Laboratories is heavily regulated by a number of industry bodies and have to ensure they do everything to the best of their abilities and set exemplary standards when being inspected. The company approached the LEP skills service for support for staff to undertake leadership and management training as well as 5S training, a workplace organisation method designed to improve efficiency, quality and employee safety.

The funding and support from the LEP has allowed the company to do two rounds of training meaning that more staff members were able to take the training and progress more quickly at the company.

In total, 16 members of staff were enlisted to take part in the 5S training, with a select few designated ‘5S champions’ whose role going forward was to ensure that the core principles were being implemented in the workplace.

An additional 16 members of staff took part in the leadership and management training with a view to them taking up a more advanced role in the company in the future.

The company have also previously gained funding from the LEP towards items of machinery, which allowed it to become more efficient and free up staff’s time to complete other jobs and allowed the company to increase capacity.

Through the training, the company now has the foundations in place for accelerated growth.

Chris Allen, Managing Director of Broughton Laboratories, said: “The continuous support that we’ve received from the LEP over the years has really helped us and these two training courses are another boost to help the business grow.

“We recently had an audit from the Food and Drug Administration and they were incredibly complimentary in how organised and successful we were and we put this down in part to the funding that the LEP has given us.

“We take a lot of our staff on straight out of university, so the training that we are receiving is helping these new starters to be trained in our way of thinking and our way of doing things. We can also identify any potential future leaders from these new recruits, and give them a real platform to grow, which in turn makes us as a company grow.”

Stephanie Burras CBE, Chair of the LEP’s Employment and Skills Panel said: “We’re delighted that we were able to contribute to Broughton Laboratories training and we’re equally delighted to hear that the training has been so successful that regulatory bodies are picking up on their new standards of organisation.

“We’re very excited to see where Broughton Laboratories are going, and it’s great to be a part of their anticipated to move to bigger and better offices. This in turn will create more jobs and bring more business to the region, which is really pleasing to see.”

The skills service is time limited and businesses are encouraged to contact the LEP on 0113 386 1910 or skills@the-lep.com to ensure they don’t miss out on the support and funding.