How to upskill your staff and boost supply chain efficiency

Enrolling your key staff in a Supply Chain Leader Apprenticeship can give them valuable skills to boost the efficiency of your supply chain – and that’s vital in today’s changeable times. Discover how you could start training right away using existing funds in your Apprenticeship Levy pot.

Many organisations in the FMCG sector have seen massive changes in the stability and reliability of their supply chain over recent months. While these challenges remain ongoing, the demand from customers is increasing, with more and more people switching to online deliveries.

In order to cope with these unprecedented pressures, many businesses are rapidly recruiting new staff into supply chain roles. Meanwhile, more senior staff are being encouraged to take urgent action to boost supply chain efficiency and reduce costs wherever possible.

The question is, how do you support this vital team to achieve its goals while growing so quickly?

Supply Chain Leader L3 from The Apprenticeship College

For businesses in the UK, one answer is to enrol key members of staff into an apprenticeship training programme designed specifically for the supply chain – Supply Chain Leader Level 3, from The Apprenticeship College. This expert-led course teaches a wealth of real-world skills that learners can apply in the workplace straight away.

Q. What is the course content?
A. Eleven interactive ‘real-world’ workshops, plus coaching

Supply Chain Leader L3 from the Apprenticeship College is designed for employees working in one or more supply chain functions in a fast moving consumer goods business. Roles may be related to procurement, forecasting, manufacture, service or logistics.

The course starts with a masterclass delivered by a high profile expert in the supply chain field, after which there are eleven core interactive workshops. These cover a range of ‘real-world’ technical and management subject areas that are beneficial to any business striving to run a cost-effective and fast moving supply chain:

1. Introduction to the Supply Chain
2. Partnerships & Customer Relations
3. Communication Skills & Collaborative Working
4. Cost Management
5. Procurement & Risk Management & Business Improvement
6. Supply Plan & Logistics
7. Supply Chain Technology & Data
8. Continuous Improvement & Problem Solving
9. Project Planning & Management
10. Managing Difficult Conversations
11. Negotiating & Influencing

To help embed this learning, students will have 12 coaching sessions led by a skills coach, who remains on hand throughout the apprenticeship to mentor the learner, answer questions and assess all work produced.

Q. How much does it cost?
A. Your funds may already be waiting

If your business pays more than £3m in wages to your staff each year, you are required to pay 0.5% of that amount into the government’s Apprenticeship Levy. These funds are freely available for upskilling your staff through the approved apprenticeship scheme.

How much do you have in your pot? You can find out here, but for now, here’s an example: if you are an employer in London with 500 employees, it is likely that you will be paying around £70,000 each year into your levy. This will fully cover the cost of at least 4 key members of your department through the Supply Chain Leader programme. In actual fact, you can train as many people as you like, because the government will co-fund more apprenticeship training with your business after your levy pot is used up.

At a time when training budgets are being frozen or cut, it’s important to remember that the apprenticeship levy is money that you have already spent. Essentially, you could upskill your workforce right now for no extra cost.

(Note that if your wage bill is less than £3m a year, you can still enrol your staff into an apprenticeship programme, and the government will pay up to 95% of the costs.)

Q. How soon will the course deliver value?
A. Before it’s even finished!

Not only is every module of the course designed to offer real-world value after completion, but learners must also strive to improve supply chain processes while still learning. During the training, the apprentice will undertake a project to improve a supply chain process within the business (fully agreed by the employer, and in line with the apprentice’s specific job role), redesigning it so that it becomes more efficient and saves the business money.

Q. How is the course delivered?
A. Online, in person… however suits your business

Supply Chain Leader L3 can be delivered online, in person or via a mix of both, making it ideal for time-pressured businesses, and those with staff across multiple sites. The learning is also delivered through a variety of training techniques, including theatre-based learning, one-to-one coaching and peer learning, each of which is chosen as appropriate to suit the topic, context and desired outcome.

Q. Why Apprenticeship College?
A. We have a 100% success rate

This course is led by highly experienced industry trainers, who are all subject matter experts, and very experienced in training for a variety of commercial organisations. The Apprenticeship College is proud to say that we have a 100% success rate at End Point Assessment, with 97% of our learners achieving a distinction or merit.

Get started today

Given the changeable nature of the supply chain, now is an ideal time to upskill your key staff. And with money already being paid into your Levy Pot, training has never been more convenient.

For more information about our Supply Chain Leader L3 Apprenticeship, download our brochure  or contact us on 02036514747.

To learn more about the Apprenticeship College and the Apprenticeship Levy, read our blog, 10 things you really need to know about apprenticeship training .