From Cutty Sark to Cutting Edge
"Loving the News Letter"
From Cutty Sark to Cutting Edge - a lesson for a future outside the EU
On a recent trip to London we visited the Cutty Sark – famous for being the fastest sailing ship in the world. Designed by a British man, made in Britain, for bringing tea to Britain, it reminded me that we have a lot of amazingly talented people in our long history as a nation. In light last year's EU referendum decision it made us think that we are going to have to find new talent within our businesses if we are ever going to compete alone again on the world stage.
The Cutty Sark was sailed by 19 men – 3 of whom were apprentices. That number was reduced from the original number of sailors when she was first built, due to efficiencies made in the way the ship operated. When she stopped transporting cargo around the world, the Cutty Sark was used as a dedicated training vessel – to train future sailors. How forward thinking was that?
This brought us back to a constant theme of ours here at CHaRM – training and development and how important it is for our future prosperity as a nation. Some of the positive commentary since the EU referendum decision has been about how Brexit should make businesses invest in training staff members again, something we have not been doing because it has been easier to fill the skills gap by recruiting cheap labour from abroad. We are fully in support of investing in staff members here at CHaRM.
We have noticed a serious decline in training in recent years, particularly of managers. With businesses finally realising that productivity needs to improve with the introduction of the NLW, auto-enrolment costs and increased holiday costs, we hope to see some recognition of the importance of training managers as well as staff.
Being an effective manager requires a completely different skill set than being good at the technical role most managers fill before they are promoted. Poor managers have such a negative effect on businesses because they hold back efficiency improvements, innovation and engagement. We have witnessed that within one of our own clients, as well as the immense improvement achieved in business performance when this poor management was addressed.
Productivity has only recently increased in Britain by 0.5%. Perhaps the time has come to improve productivity even further so that Britain can stand firmly on its own feet again. Why not lead that challenge? Start by investing in your managers so that they can start increasing efficiency, innovation and engagement in your organisation. Even better – let us help you with that. We have so much to offer businesses that are keen to achieve the best for both the business and the people that work within it.
Our Learning and Development pages of this website outline the variety of training solutions available for managers, be they new managers or team leaders, more experienced managers and even senior managers. We have a 'lunch and learn' option as well as a 'learn while you work' option. Below is feedback from one delegate on our Certificate in Leadership and Management:
"I approached CHaRM because I needed to find my feet as a brand new manager. I already had excellent 1st hand experience working with them and this seemed like an ideal course to get me started. The result was even better than I’d hoped! Small groups of 4-5 students and coursework tailored to my current role meant I was able to apply new knowledge in a practical way immediately. It feels like a bespoke course just for you.
One thing I liked was the ability to talk with the rest of the group, there were loads of discussions around topics which were guided expertly by the tutors. It was easy to come away from a topic with a real, genuine understanding. I found the experience transformative; in terms of knowledge, understanding and confidence I’ve grown massively over the duration. I couldn’t recommend the ILM Level 3 course run by CHaRM more, I’d do it again if I was allowed!"