L-R: Susan Harris of Durham Training, Chris Barrass of Access Training and June Brewis of MPH Customer Centred Training.
A north east training company has created a new partnership which will secure 50 jobs in the region.
Access Training has won a £2m contract with the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) thanks to a partnership deal with two other training providers - Durham Training and MPH Customer Centred Training. The move has doubled its funding from the SFA which allocates £4bn of public funding per year for the training of adults in England.
In August the SFA significantly increased the minimum value of contracts it will award to any individual training provider which has left many smaller organisations struggling to secure funding and stay in business.
Gateshead-based Access, which has been in business for over 25 years, has launched a new partnerships division to offer subcontracts to other training companies.
The arrangement gives subcontractors security and efficiencies. On behalf of its new partners, Durham Training and MPH, Access draws down the SFA funding and carries out all the required auditing and performance and quality management.
Access' Chris Barrass has taken on the role of Partnerships Director to drive forward this new area of the business.
Chris said: "We have a long history of partnership working and saw the new SFA funding rules as an opportunity to grow our business by offering collaborative arrangements to others that safeguard their funding while providing additional support. It's a win-win for all partners. MPH and Durham Training both have excellent reputations in their own right and although it's early days we can already see some real benefits from working together. Our aim is that all partners will grow together over the next few years"
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Training Provision Manager at MPH Customer Centred Training, June Brewis, said: "It wasn't absolutely necessary for us to go into partnership at this time but we were aware that the new SFA policy may mean we would need to do so in the future. So we took a decision to join two providers that we know and trust now, rather than being left with a more limited number of potential partners later. Access has a great reputation so was an obvious choice. The partnership suits us because we wanted to keep our own identity and the deal also allows us a good degree of control over our part of the contract."
Access Training is based on Team Valley and is the only training provider in Tyne and Wear to achieve the Training Quality Standard (TQS).
Susan Harris of Durham Training comments: "This partnership has enabled us to work with two high quality training providers and to continue providing training. It's early days but so far, so good. The support and advice it brings and being able to bounce ideas off like-minded training providers has been very positive."
MPH Customer Centred Training, which is part of MPH Group, has 11 staff and offers apprenticeships in a number of sectors. The company is based at the Media Centre at Stonehills in Pelaw.
Durham Training is owned by Durham Business Group and has a training centre in Chester-le-Street with 15 staff. Courses and apprenticeships offered include accounting, hairdressing, business administration, customer service and beauty therapy.
For more information about partnership opportunities contact Access Training on 0191490 4646 or email info@accesstraining.org
