Britain is Not On Its Knees - Providing It Keeps Training!

"Britain is not on its knees" states Digby, Lord Jones of Birmingham.

This was one of the key messages which attendees took away from the seminar "Business Solutions for a Recession" held in Peterborough at the end of April 2009. The seminar was organised by the Learning and Skills Council in partnership with the Peterborough and Cambridgeshire agencies who are supporting local businesses during this current recession. Various local businesses attended attracted by the fact that the former Minister for Trade and Investment, Digby Jones, was to be the guest speaker along with Stewart White from the BBC who acted as host.

Many of these businesses had previously seen Lord Digby Jones at the UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) awards evening held at Bury St Edmunds in 2008 where he was both motivational and inspirational. Again, he didn't disappoint. In fact many audience members wondered why there couldn't be more people like him in Government!

The main theme of the event was training and that, even during a recession, companies must continue to invest in their staff otherwise they may be left behind when the economy picks up again. To reinforce this, Stewart White said "your business is two and a half times more likely to survive if you have trained your staff".

Digby Jones mentioned that it is now impossible to compete on price against the likes of China and India but what the UK can offer, and which is of real value, is "knowledge" (it is worth noting that out of the top ten universities in the world, four of them are located in the UK). He urged attendees to use the funding and resources being made available to them so that they can "emerge from the downturn fitter, stronger and better able to compete long-term in global markets".

It was very apt that Gillian Beasley, CEO of Peterborough City Council, signed the government's Skills Pledge at the event to publicly show the Council's commitment to invest in their staff helping them gain basic skills and competencies to further their development. The Learning and Skills Council website states "The Skills Pledge aims to achieve a shared understanding of the value of training and encourage businesses to invest in skills accordingly" and "is a voluntary, public commitment made by an organisation to invest in the skills of its workforce."

SME's (Small/Medium Sized Enterprises) need to understand the need for investing in our people not only from the commercial aspect but also from an employee's need to develop and grow. They need to be passionate about ongoing training for all new staff and developing induction training modules together with long-term personal development plans.

From our perspective, the Regulatory Affairs industry is constantly changing with new legislation and directives coming into force at frequent intervals. These changes are often a result of industry or public consultations as well as the development of innovative products, such as stem cell therapies, which don't necessarily fit the criteria of existing regulations. As well as a desire to invest in our employees, at GRS we also believe in the transfer of knowledge so that not only are we providing regulatory compliance consultancy to our clients but also providing them with knowledge which they can use again in the future.

The seminar held at Peterborough brought home the message that training is a worthy investment and can help a company to survive the current recession. It also reminded us that we should be proud of who we are because British companies have much to offer especially our knowledge and technology.

written - May 2009

Added - 21 July 2009

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