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Two college tutors have given the Midlands motor industry a major lift after becoming the first to boost their skills with an intensive workplace-training qualification.
Oliver Kolontari and Alfred Eves from Dudley College of Technology gained their National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) in Business Improvement Techniques (B-IT) at Level 2 after completing a new Skills4Auto training programme.
This will now enable them to train employees in best practice so that those employees can develop workplace processes, including reducing waste and improving quality, which are key to automotive industry competitiveness.
Skills4Auto, which promotes skills growth within the industry, designed the programme to ‘upskill’ trainers and assessors on the successful B-IT NVQ course by identifying skill deficit areas and arranging automotive company placements where the Tutors can practically apply B-IT tools and techniques.
Dudley College, which worked with Skills4Auto in creating the NVQ course, put Oliver and Alfred through a five-stage learning programme to gain the skills and knowledge needed to train automotive manufacturers and their suppliers in a standard methodology for improving the Industry’s competitiveness.
Oliver Kolontari, a lecturer in maintenance engineering in the Dudley College’s engineering department gained the qualification after completing a two-week placement at Land Rover where he worked as part of the end of line water testing team, evaluating the vehicles performance and highlighting any rectification work necessary.
“I logged the performance of the vehicles and suggested the small technical changes that could make a difference. I also checked on waste and inefficiency and suggested improvements. It was not a matter of applying anything new, but rather on encouraging people to focus on a series of improvement techniques bundled up in one package - and so far very few people can deliver it,” said Oliver.
“Land Rover was very open with its data. I started on the shop floor and was allowed access to the company’s information systems - and I even looked at the top end of the company including their business planning.
“What was so great about the placement was that the experience helped me to make the company’s business more efficient whilst gaining a qualification and developing case studies for my students. Ultimately this programme will help bridge the skills gap and make UK industry more competitive.”
As a work-based assessor in the engineering department and a recent recipient of the NVQ BIT Level 2, Alfred Eves was delighted to be nominated to join the Skills4Auto programme.
Alfred already had 40 years’ large-scale industry experience, having risen from apprentice to senior foreman with MG Rover before joining Redditch-based aerospace supplier HDA Forgings where he became the Chief Engineer.
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