Michael Hargreaves is the new City and Guilds Training Support Officer for GO Wales. Mike explains what his new role will involve and how this will help benefit students, graduates and businesses who participate in a GO Wales work placement:
“The main role that I have within the team is to meet with all students and graduates on GO Wales placements and induct them into the City & Guilds Professional Development Award. This means that I travel throughout the whole of Wales on a frequent basis.”
“I have genuinely been surprised by the quality of both the work placements and the students and graduates. Throughout my travels in the job I have met and worked with some very exciting and dynamic small businesses that have benefited tremendously from GO Wales work placements.”
“One particular example that stands out is a Business Management graduate, Laura. She looked to her placement at Lizard Workwear & Safety as an opportunity to practice the skills that she learned through study at Swansea University.”
“The objective of the placement was to improve the conversion rate, turnover and activity on the Safety Depot webstore. The placement allowed Laura to develop both skills and business prowess to such an extent that sales increased in just 9 weeks by a staggering 64.10%. The objective that she was set was to simply improve sales by 10% which really does show the impact that Laura had.”
“Laura was exposed to many aspects of the business and understands that small businesses succeed best when the staff are determined and motivated to achieve their goals in the workplace. She was also able to build and develop upon a wide range of qualities such as general business awareness and how to manage people in an effective manner.”
“Whilst 2008 was a busy year for us, we anticipate that 2009 will be even bigger and better. Last year we planned to work with 255 candidates yet we actually worked with over 370.”
“I am genuinely pleased that I am working within such a well known and respected brand like GO Wales and am able to have such an important impact upon the development and progression of tomorrow’s business professionals. For those of you that are new to the Award, I am sure we will meet at some point in 2009 and you can see the benefit and impact of a well rounded and business aware student or graduate working within your organisation.”
