NEWS  

20th September, 2006

South Devon Construction Firm Reaches National Finals

How many firms would invest more in training, if they thought it would increase profits? Bovey Construction of Ashburton has achieved just this with a training programme which has equipped its five site managers with the management skills recognised as essential in industry but widely disregarded in construction. This has generated an additional £10 in profits for every £1 spent on training and led to the South Devon firm being selected as a finalist in this year’s National Training Awards.

The training programme, which was conducted over two years had two broad objectives. The first was to develop the team’s management skills so they could both manage their projects and their staff more effectively, and handle the architect and the client without intervention by managing director, Neil Turner. The highly specific business targets included profitability, overheads, absenteeism, meeting deadlines and snagging lists (the trade term for identified faults at the end of a project).

The core of the training and development was the coaching and mentoring provided by managing director, Neil Turner, who himself completed an NVQ Level 5 during the period of training he devised for his site managers. The training programme included an NVQ Level 3 in site management, a CITB course for construction site managers and an in-house training programme designed by a consultant. The latter focused on specific skills identified by the site managers and their teams, including site briefing, performance reviews and wide-ranging written and spoken communication skills.

The team will find out on 26 October if it has won NTA Highly Commended status, a South West Training Award or a UK National Training Award. The announcement will be made at a gala dinner at the Thistle Hotel, Bristol. If Bovey Construction wins a UK award, it will be invited to the UK gala ceremony in London on 14 December.

Neil Turner said: “We will all be really chuffed if we win an NTA award next month, but we did not complete this training simply to win an award. The real gain is that I now have five site managers who are not only highly qualified in craft skills, as they should be, but also have the sort of transferable management skills they would need to manage a small factory or the local Tesco.

“Practical, focused training clearly works – and our improved business performance demonstrates that. That is why our commitment to training is ongoing for all our 27 staff, whether they work on site, as managers or in the office.”
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