Introduction

It’s looking set to be another busy month for Services to Business. As you will no doubt have seen, our promotion on free training on a selection of our courses is in place until the middle of April, and this is a great opportunity for businesses to get their staff some nationally recognised qualifications at little or no cost. The other benefit is that many of these courses actually run alongside their jobs in your workplace- meaning staff gain qualifications as they work. See the links below for more information, but courses include areas of Customer Service, Business and Administration, Logistics, Management and Health and Social Care - if you require any more information, as always, please get in touch!

We also have an exciting Logistics Breakfast Meeting planned, which looks set to attract some of the biggest names in the industry again. Don't miss your opportunity to attend as places are limited.

I hope you continue to enjoy the e-newsletter- and as always, please give our helpful staff a call with any queries or questions on any aspects of our services for your business.

Yours in training

Sarah Johnson, Services to Business Manager

What’s new

Wildcats Players Back Don’t Get Left Behind Campaign

Services to Business welcomed Wakefield Wildcats players Brad Drew and Paul Reilly to continue to push our latest drive to attract companies to 'fill their skills gaps'. Until Friday the 18th of April, the unit is offering FREE training to businesses on a selected number of our courses, with the only cost being a small fee for registration and certification, dependant on the course chosen.

Wildcats star Drew commented “This is a really great offer that the college has put together and it’s a good opportunity for local businesses to get skills for their staff whilst they work.”

The courses are aimed at those in supervisory positions and vary from Management through to Customer Service. Staff are assessed as they work, meaning that they spend little or no time away from their normal job roles whilst gaining qualifications. For further details, call us on 01924 789715 or click here for details.

Logistics Breakfast Meeting

The Logistics Department will be holding another free Breakfast Meeting on Friday the 25th of April at our Whitwood Campus, Castleford. Hot topics in the Logistics and Haulage industries will be discussed on the day, as well as providing the opportunity to talk to the Logistics staff on items such as the Operator and Driver CPC courses, apprenticeships, further education options for staff in the logistics and haulage areas, and the opportunity to ask any questions about the future of the industry.

For full details click here.

Online Learning- To the Gambia and Beyond!

Services to Business not only provide training and services for the business community of West Yorkshire- we can also provide training further afield. We recently welcomed Paul Conteh to one of our on-line programmes, who was keen to continue his studies and work towards the 4 ECDL Advanced modules whilst living in his homeland of the Gambia.

Having searched for the course on the internet, Paul signed up, and through the British Computer Society (the awarding body who run the ECDL Advanced modules), it was agreed that Paul could study abroad but that he would be required to sit his live tests in this country at our Registered Test Centre in Wakefield. All communication during Paul’s coursework is done by email with close liaison with his online tutors who continually support his progress.

If releasing your staff from work is difficult, then why not look into on-line learning? The courses are flexible and are ideal for those who have access to the internet and a willingness to learn.

To find out more, visit www.servtobusiness.co.uk/go/online and look through the wealth of courses on offer.  If you prefer, you can get in touch with our online department on 01924 789229 to discuss any requirements. We can also provide bespoke online learning to both individuals and employers.

Level 4 Funding Available in Management and Health and Social Care

As part of the Higher Education Bridging Project, Services to Business have managed to gain funding to encourage those who have completed Level 2 and Level 3 courses to qualify to progress. The scheme will fund 30 NVQ Level 4’s in Management or Health and Social Care, with the possibility of completing specific units as well.

For further details, call John Turner on 01924 789715

CIM Meeting At Wakefield Campus

Services to Business recently welcomed the Chartered Institute of Marketing Branch Meeting to our Thornes Park Campus.

We welcomed Duncan Miller, who discussed ‘Speaking - The Forgotten Art’, attended by over 50 people.

Venturefest Yorkshire 2008

A number of our Management & Business Enterprise learners visited Venturefest Yorkshire recently. Venturefest is an event which allows various companies to pass on advice and knowledge regarding various aspects of their own businesses and industry. Top speakers on the day included Julie Mayor, chief executive of Ariadne Capital and former Entrepreneur of the Year, and Peter Day, who spoke on re-inventing entrepreneurship.

A Selection of Future Courses:

Other services we can offer

At Wakefield College we can offer a number of smart venues for hire, including meeting rooms, conference rooms, IT rooms and seminar rooms at our Wakefield, Thornes Park and Whitwood campuses. In addition we have a large sports hall, gymnasium and dance studios at Thornes.

All campuses are situated within easy distance of the M62, the M1 motorway networks and near to railway and bus links. Hotels are situated close to all our venues.

We can help you in choosing the appropriate room, layout and equipment to meet your needs. All your catering requirements will also be met. We have a dedicated and professional team with a centralised co-ordination service, waiting for your call.

You only need to make the call and we'll do the rest.

Please contact either:

Joan Baker, Resource Officer
Tel: 01924 789728/425
eMail: j.baker@wakefield.ac.uk

Virginia Sibbald, Resource Officer
Tel: 01924 789726
eMail:v.sibbald@wakefield.ac.uk

or click here to take a look at the Campuses we have on offer

* Whilst we endeavour to meet your day time needs, we are a functioning college and week-ends, college holidays and evenings, are our speciality.

Global Travel - The Number One For Business Travel Savings In Yorkshire

Based in College, Global Travel is much more than a travel agent for students! Offering business class train travel through to top class hotels, Global Travel have a dedicated section for our external business clients. Dedicated to finding you the best priced fare, the best route for your business and purpose and the best appropriate ticket for the type of journey, why not give them a call and see how much they could save your business.

Examples include:

Rail
Leeds to London Kings Cross FIRST CLASS SEATS FROM £ 36.50 EACH WAY *
Leeds to Aberdeen from £ 18.00 only each way *
Leeds to Birmingham from just £ 9.00 each way *
* available on certain dates and times - please call for further details

Hotels
London Battersea Hotels from just £29 per room per night
London Heathrow 4 star Sheraton from just £59 per room per night
London Gatwick Sofitel 5 star hotel from just £69 per room per night (18 minutes from Victoria Station)
Plus many great offers and ‘Stay and Show’ packages with top seats for all West End shows from £ 99 per person- ideal for entertaining clients!

Flight Offers
We have ticket facilities with over 273 airlines worldwide and can make great savings on your corporate travel

Latest offers include:
Barcelona From £19.99 plus taxes
Alicante From £19.99 plus taxes
Gdansk From £19.99 plus taxes
Geneva From £39.99 plus taxes
Stockholm From £39.99 plus taxes
Denmark From £29.99 plus taxes
Plus 1000s more - call now for latest offers

Airport Parking
Manchester Airport - 7 days from just £24.90 - amazing value

Travel Insurance
Are You Covered When Travelling For Your Business?
Many travel insurance policies exclude business travel cover - If you are presuming you have for example a credit card with free travel insurance - do not rely on this for business travel - in most cases you will not be covered.

We offer one of the best policies and cover for leisure travel multi trips which also include business travel cover. As an example for a Married Couple you can have worldwide multi trip cover for just £ 79.95 per year for both of you - amazing value!

Post Easter Blues?
Why not go for one of our post Easter bargain Sun Breaks?

3 star apartments with pool - flights from Manchester to Lanzarote from only £249 per person based on twin share
3 star hotel S C with pool - Manchester to Costa Del Sol from only £209 per person based on twin share
3 star City break to Paris - 3 nights bed and breakfast - transport from Wakefield - all inc for £119
3 nights Spanish Mini Cruise - Hot Sun Offers from just £99 per person

For these and many more bargains plus all your corporate needs please contact Global Business Travel now on 01924 789171 or email global.travel@wakefield.ac.uk

A selection of our latest courses

Accountancy Staff?

Do you have accountancy staff?
We offer some excellent courses in SAGE accounting including:

Introduction to Sage - 18th April - £95
Sage Payroll - 16th May - £95
Advanced Sage - 6th June - £95

For further information, call Janet Hilton on 01924 789715.

Certificate in Project Management

Feel like you are trying to do 10 things at once? Accredited by ASET, the Level 3 Certificate in Project Management is a five day programme designed to explore the various principles for managing projects.

The programme looks at five areas connected to successful project management:

Principles of Project Management
Project Life Cycle
Preparing a Project Plan
Co-ordination of a Project
Project Evaluation and Handover

For further details, contact Ann Finn on 01924 789715 or click here.

Could your staff benefit from Customer Service Training?

Would you like your staff to be competent, motivated employees who will provide exceptional customer care to your organisation’s customers?

We are running a 2 day accredited course on Thursday and Friday the 19th and 20th of June on Customer Service. The course will cover areas such as an introduction to customer service, effective communications, presenting a positive, professional image and handling customer complaints.

For further details, contact Liz Ward or Christine Palmer on 01924 789715 or click here.

Assessor and Verifier Awards

We have both assessor and verifier awards available for those who wish to get involved in these areas.

Assessor Award
This course is for anyone who is involved in NVQs and wishes to train as an NVQ assessor. The A1 Award is for the Vocational assessor and the A2 is for those who only wish to act as qualified NVQ Observer assessors.

For further details, click here

Internal Verifier Award
This programme is for anyone who wishes to qualify as an internal verifier and is involved in monitoring and evaluating internal NVQ assessment systems.

For further details, click here

Could your staff improve their Word and Excel skills? Our short courses could be just the thing!

We can offer beginner, intermediate and advanced level courses in IT, so why not contact us?

If you are not sure which level you need, we have a pre-induction questionnaire which can help.

At Services to Business we have excellent IT facilities, equipped with the latest industry standard equipment and professionally qualified specialist trainers who understand the needs of business clients.

For full details on all of our IT courses, click here.

Logistics and Warehousing

Our Logistics team have a wide range of courses designed to help with Haulage, Logistic and Warehousing companies. With new legislation for drivers in the imminent future and new qualifications available for Warehousing staff, why not click here or give the team a call on 01924 789715 or for full details of the courses we can provide.

Date For Your Diary…

Friday 4th July
Open Space Event
(Part of the Yorkshire Leadership)

An innovative open forum event for business professionals and leaders.

No keynotes, no workshops, just you and a group of other inspiring and committed people in dialogue!

We are inviting people from business, the public and voluntary sectors to come and participate in what will be one of the key events in Leadership Development in Yorkshire this year (as well as being an excellent opportunity for networking with a variety of committed people from diverse businesses and organisations). This really is an invite - the normal fee for this event would be £145 - because this event is sponsored by the West Yorkshire Lifelong Learning Network we offer it to you free!

Those who have experienced Open Space have referred to the process as: 'passion bounded by responsibility', 'intentional self-organization', 'spirit at work', 'chaos and creativity', 'evolution in organization', and 'a simple, powerful way to get people and organizations moving - when and where it's needed most'.

Once you have experienced Open Space you will be able to use the process for yourself and your business!

For details, contact David Taylor on 01924 789715.

The ‘How to….’ Workshop Programme

Short, sharp one day workshops to give you the basics so you can go back into work and use what you have learned straightaway.

The focus – to give you some practical things that you can do. And… you get one hour’s one-to-one coaching at a later date to help you if you wish.

The workshops…

Coaching

How to use Coaching to accelerate performance

- Understand how coaching works
- Practice core coaching skills: listening, rapport, asking the “right” question, creating outcomes
- Using the GROW Model

NLP

How to use NLP (Neuro-lingusitic Programming) at work

- Understand the “six legs” of NLP
- Practice creating Resourceful States to help you/others achieve optimum performance
- Physiology - making it work for effective communication
- The Confidence Switch
- Outcomes – Present State to Desired State
- Well-Formed Outcomes and Timelining

Project Management

How to deliver successful projects on time and within budget.

- Understand the principles of project management
- Control projects in an effective and systematic way
- Manage the people, resources and interests involved in a project
- Establish benchmarks, evaluate progress and incorporate feedback

Participants are asked to bring with them information on a current project or task that they are undertaking. By the end of the day they will have been enabled to develop a plan to achieve this project successfully.

Team Leading

How to give your team leaders the skills to make a real difference in your workplace!

This workshop focuses on how to get the best out of the team:
- Leadership skills
- How to handle transition from team member to team leader
- Sources of authority - how to gain trust and respect
- How to motivate the team
- How to manage the team’s performance

All delegates will develop an action plan to take back to their work and put into practice. 

Getting the most out of your staff

How to recruit and retain staff

The workshop will comprise:
- a systematic approach to Recruitment and Selection
- the function and significance of a Job Description and Person Specification
- the importance of questioning
- the purpose of appraisal systems
- the motivational potential of appraisals
- the categories of assessment
- the importance of feedback

Managing Change

How to manage people and change

A workshop for anyone who has to manage or lead change in their organisation and business.

- The nature of change
- How people deal with change in their lives
- Dealing with the ‘comfort zone’
- A template for managing a change project.

Participants will work on a current change process they are leading or managing.  By the end of the day you will have a plan to manage this change successfully.

Personality Profiling (half day only)

How to use personality profiling in making recruitment and selection decisions

The workshop will comprise:                                    
in College (approx 1.5 hours)
- the scope of personality profiling
- the completion of a personality profile questionnaire - 16PF5
- partial assessment of the questionnaire

in your own organisation (approx 0.5 hours)
- one to one feedback focusing on what the questionnaire indicates about your own profile.

All workshops are 10.00 - 16.00 at the Thornes Park Centre

The Personality Profiling half day is 10.00 - 13.00 at the Thornes Park Centre, then back in your work.

Your investment
Each one-day workshop is £200 per person (the half-day Personality Profiling is £125). This includes any course materials, lunch & refreshments plus a one-hour follow-up coaching session on request after the workshop day. For further details, contact David Taylor on 01924 789715.