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SKILLWORKS - TRAINING TO MEET DEMAND
Talking to Terry Connor is an education in itself. As MD of Connors Buildings & Restoration Ltd based in Kirkby, Terry has built his business around restoring and maintaining many of the 17,000 electricity substations owned by ScottishPower throughout the North West and North Wales.
Before meeting him, there’s little doubt that you would ever notice the plain brick-built buildings with their green-painted doors and iron fences that line our streets. But afterwards, your eyes will have been opened to the industry involved in supplying energy to every home and working building in Britain.
“Training is absolutely essential in this business,” says Terry, who started his career as a stonemason specialising in repointing listed buildings. “In the last four years alone, we have seen the business grow from 20 to 60 staff, and last year we carried out around 5,000 jobs for ScottishPower.”
The maintenance staff at Connors cover a multitude of trades – bricklayers, joiners, flaggers and plasterers. They keep the substation buildings safe and grounds clear, so that ScottishPower engineers can access them when they need to.
“It’s crucial that our own people know the safety issues – some of these substations can carry up to 132,000 Volts,” says Terry. “They all have to comply to SP’s standards and regulations, as well as being able to multi-task in their own work.”
“SkillWorks has covered virtually everything we need, from health and safety to IT. Two years ago we installed a highly sophisticated tracking system, which was specially designed to link us in to ScottishPower. It generates job sheets, pin-points locations, tracks work in progress and converts completion rates onto a chart. Everything is now automated, so we are all being trained to use it effectively and help the business to increase its contracts and grow.”
• SkillWorks is an award-winning demand-led training programme that provides Merseyside-based SMEs and inward-investing corporations with a valuable subsidy against their own training plan.
• Funded by the European Social Fund, SkillWorks enables a company to spread its training budget much further. It’s quick, easy to set up, and meets the organisation’s real needs.

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