Driving up productivity are Traidcraft staff (Back row - front to rear)
John Logan, Michael Lutter, Andrzej Smok,
Zenen Santana-Delgado and Sharon Pearson
(Front row - front to rear)
Christina Ward, Alison Nesbitt, Jeanette Brenkley,
Maureen Helm, Amelia Lowery, Julie Harpin, Julia Place and Lynda Deeks.

Thinking outside the box has helped Traidcraft, the fair trade organisation based in the North East, increase the number of packages it can deliver by about 10,000 a year.

This five per cent increase will help the Team Valley distribution centre meet the growing demand for the developing world products it supplies to its customers throughout the UK.

It has been achieved through an innovative programme of training and flexible working which has improved the skills and motivation of over 16 per cent of the staff employed at Traidcraft’s Tyneside headquarters.

The latest initiative - involving staff working across six different departments - has been NVQ Level 2 and 3 training in team leading, warehousing and distribution, customer service, business administration and IT, all delivered by Access Training.

Christine Borley, Traidcraft Director of Human Resources, said: ‘We have people here from different backgrounds including some from overseas whose first language is not English. Effective training not only improves skills, it creates a greater cohesiveness among the workforce, improving communication and motivation. The results have been impressive and, as a result, we are well prepared for our busiest season.”

In addition, Traidcraft has introduced extremely flexible working packages to help its staff balance work and family life, including part-time, flexi-time, job-share, annualised hours and home working.

Access Training rose to the challenge of fitting the programme around these arrangements. Chris Scott, Training Manager, said: “We began by talking with Traidcraft to understand what it wanted to achieve. This enabled us to identify the areas and types of training which would best deliver results and then we had to devise very flexible delivery.

“The workforce has responded very positively which has helped them to deliver impressive improvements in productivity.”

• Access Training specialises in providing work based training to improve individual and company performance. In partnership with ITEC North East and Gateshead College, it forms the only Centre of Vocational Excellence (CoVE) for Business and Management in the North East, providing high quality training which meets employers’ skills needs.

• Traidcraft fights poverty through trade, helping people in developing countries to transform their lives. As the UK’s leading fair trade organisation, it provides the widest range of fair trade products - from food and drink, to clothes and crafts. It works in partnership with hundreds of small-scale fair trade producers in nearly 30 developing countries, committed to lasting relationships and helping build sustainable businesses.
Traidcraft Website

• Skillfast-UK is the sector skills council for fashion and textiles who is working with the Learning and Skills Council to promote learning and development through their Future Textiles initiative. The Future Textiles initiative enabled Traidcraft to access fully funding training as clothing and jewellery are among the products handled.
Skillfast-UK website