[H]IT Training has won the ‘Training provider of the year’ award at the annual Tes FE Awards 2018 and been named in in the prestigious Times Top100 Best Companies to Work For.
HIT Training has taken the lead on the apprenticeship agenda. It was the first hospitality training provider to offer the new apprenticeship standards, 16 months ahead of the deadline, and has worked closely with employers to help them to understand the best way to maximise their apprenticeship programmes.
It also launched a sector-wide campaign to help to educate businesses on what the new apprenticeship levy, introduced last spring, means for them. Its levy handbook, designed to help businesses of all sizes understand the new funding system, was central to this campaign.
Since April, HIT has launched four new apprenticeship standards: hospitality supervisor, team leader, chef de partie and customer service practitioner, and a further eight standards are to be launched soon. The Chef Academy now has 16 centres across the country, designed to help employers attract and retain chefs and to assist in plugging the national skills shortage.
HIT also advises on the apprenticeship trailblazer group, and regularly provides panel speakers at national and local events, helping the sector to identify best practice and understand how to make the most of its investment in training.
HIT’s internal observation team continually monitors staff and gives feedback on how to improve. Quality assurers provide regular support remotely and face-to-face. As a result, both learner satisfaction and employer satisfaction are high – at 94 per cent and 93 per cent, respectively.
The judges said HIT Training has enjoyed “a monumental past year, driving the apprenticeship agenda. With great staff development and amazing learner and employer satisfaction, clearly HIT is one of the leaders of the sector.”
This prestigious award comes only one day after being named in the prestigious Times Top100 Best Companies to Work For.
Coming in at number 74, HIT Training has risen up the list from 88th in 2015 and 92nd in 2014. A total of 798 companies registered to participate this year and the entries are derived from the views of employees, who rank their employers according to key indicators of staff engagement and workplace satisfaction – creating a barometer of excellence in the workplace.
A staggering 90.75% of HIT’s employees participated in the Top100 survey – smashing the league tables’ average of 68%. The results highlighted that 90% of employees are proud to work at HIT Training and 93% believe they make a valuable contribution to the success of the company. 95% of respondents also believe that HIT provides its clients with a high-level of service.
HIT Training has an office base at Redhills Business Park in Penrith, Cumbria offering hospitality & catering apprenticeships and professional qualifications across Cumbria & Lancashire.
