Recognition for our Personal Development Programmes

We were absolutely delighted to welcome Kenneth Gibson MSP to our Wescot Saltcoats Office earlier today. The visit was arranged by Skills Development Scotland, who selected us as we have recently started our latest programme of 14 learners advancing their personal development in the office.

Mr Gibson spent time talking to Susan Gayton (Talent Development Manager), Leah Ralton (Business Performance Manager), our training provider Genius People and most importantly several of our learners. Robert Kidd, Helen McCallum, Gillian Palmer, Martin Monan, Katie Stevely, William McGuigan and Leanne Clements all spent time sharing their stories about why they choose to study and what they are looking forward to. We all really enjoyed talking about our experiences.

The Scottish Government and Skills Development Scotland are currently promoting Scottish Apprenticeship week. We were so pleased our learners were able to meet Kenneth and share the positive impact their qualifications will have for them. We have seen several colleagues over the last ten years use their qualifications to develop their skills and progress through our business (i.e. Customer Consultant to Team Leader /Manager or subject matter expert) and we really want to continue that trend.

More broadly, Wescot and Genius People have been working in close partnership to provide a national apprenticeship programme to existing colleagues for 10 years now. We have had 763 successful colleagues in an award-winning programme, that provides outstanding skills development in multiple qualifications including customer service, financial services, coaching and leadership. Our latest group will add a further 55 apprentices. Over the years the programme has grown, offering our colleagues professional development and the opportunity to take advantage of the varied opportunities for progression at Wescot and the wider Cabot group. More recently, we used the Flexible Workforce Development fund to further enhance and align the opportunities in our English and Scottish sites, offering additional coaching, management and leadership support for colleagues and Senior Leaders.

Thank you to everyone involved today for representing who we are so proudly. We are really grateful for the effort our learners give and everyone’s hard work in supporting how we develop ourselves and others.