Access takes top award
Dated: 12/03/2010

A North East Training provider has joined an elite band of organisations to achieve the coveted Training Quality Standard (TQS).

A North East Training provider has joined an elite band of organisations to achieve the coveted Training Quality Standard (TQS).

Access is the first independent training provider in Tyne and Wear to gain the award and become recognised as a top provider of high quality, high impact training to employers. They were presented with the award by Alastair McColl, Chief Executive of Business and & Enterprise North East, at their Seaham headquarters.

Business and & Enterprise North East is charged with helping to transform regional economies by providing efficient, effective and targeted support to new and existing businesses with the emphasis on exceptional customer service.

Managing Director, Malcolm Armstrong, commented: "We support the work of BENE by ensuring that our training provision is clearly focussed on meeting the needs of individual businesses and through that the regional economy as a whole. It was an extremely challenging process to achieve this award but we're delighted that we can now officially claim to be one of the UK's most effective deliverers of training.

"Everyone here has put in a great deal of work to ensure that training programmes through Access really can make a difference to the performance of the businesses we deal with. Being the first independent training provider in Tyne & Wear to achieve this award is tremendous. Our staff can be very proud of their achievements."

A large part of the assessment process involved customers being asked to rate Access in terms of likeliness to recommend their services to other employers with 83% of employers rating them 8 out of 10 or higher.

The Learning and Skills Council, who developed the assessment framework say of the standard, "For training providers it offers a framework to drive improvement and challenge thinking on how best to achieve impact in the employer customers' businesses. It is a mark to which training providers aspire because it is tough to achieve and through it, their performance is what really sets them apart from the competition."

Alastair MacColl, chief executive of Business & Enterprise North East (BE-NE), the organisation that manages the Business Link service in the region, said: "Skills training and people development delivers real benefits to businesses, and ultimately the economy".

"As an organisation BE-NE is committed to pushing forward the skills agenda in the region, so for a North East training provider to gain recognition in this way is really positive and I congratulate the team at Access."