Westlea's staff IT training is
'good news for everyone'

Employees at Chippenham-based Westlea Housing are being given the chance to improve their computer literacy and gain an IT qualification – thanks to a new partnership with Wiltshire College.

A pilot scheme involving 10 staff that began in the summer has been so successful that Westlea and the College plan to continue the training in the new year. Employees will have six months to finish the programme and will be offered plenty of support including time set aside each week to help complete their coursework.

The College’s training arm – Focus Learning and Development – has worked closely with Westlea to come up with an IT training package tailored to the needs of staff at the housing association, which employs around 250 staff from its headquarters at Methuen Park.

The IT qualification is the nationally recognised National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) for IT Users, which demonstrates competence in the use of IT. The qualification comprises 3 levels of accreditation – levels 1, 2 and 3. Westlea has decided to adopt NVQ Level 2 as the benchmark standard for its employees. The qualification replaces the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) and CLAIT IT qualifications as the industry standard.

Muriel Facey, Human Resources Manager at Westlea, said: “This is a great opportunity for our staff who don’t already have an IT or business qualification to gain one – with financial support from Westlea and, in some cases, the Government ‘Train to Gain’ initiative.

“A key benefit of the NVQ qualification is its flexibility; we can work with the College to tailor the programme to suit the needs of staff taking part. Already we have been able to shape and develop future projects by learning lessons from the pilot.”

Rob Fletcher, Head of IT at Westlea, said: “This training programme is good news for everyone. It is all about increasing computer literacy amongst staff which as well as obviously supporting our business aims is important in terms of an individual’s career development.

“We want to ensure that all of our members of staff are IT literate to a minimum of NVQ level 2. We think that increased computer literacy will mean that many staff will actually spend less time at their desk and more time with our customers.”

It’s planned that the next group of Westlea staff to begin the training will attend sessions at Wiltshire College’s Lackham House from early in 2008.