CASE STUDIES
COUNTERLINE
Krys Szokalo is passionate about training. In August 2002, he and business partner Jeremy Sokel took ownership of Counterline, a market leader in the design, manufacture and installation of serving counters to blue chip names such as Marks and Spencer, Welcome Break and Hilton International.
They are now 18 months into an ambitious growth strategy which has been underpinned by a workforce development programme to skill up both management and shop floor staff.
Whilst some of their growth plans inevitably mean taking on new staff, Krys believes their future competitiveness ultimately depends on continuously improving their systems and the skills of their existing people.
“Having the right skills helps everyone to achieve more, whatever their job” he says. “It’s also a great motivator because people can see you’re investing in them personally.”
Luckily for Krys, there are two major factors working in Counterline’s favour: Partnership for Learining (PfL) and SkillWorks.
Located just a few miles away in a modern, purpose-built facility on Speke Boulevard, PfL is working closely with Counterline to identify and meet the company’s ongoing training needs.
From IT training and good manufacturing process, through to health and safety and personal effectiveness, PfL offer a full and flexible range of training to meet the demands of modern businesses.
Now, through its contract with the Merseyside Learning and Skills Council, PfL is able to offer firms of 250 employees or less an unprecedented 80% subsidy on all training through the government-funded SkillWorks programme.
Beth Nolan, PfL’s workforce development manager explains: “SkillWorks has really opened the door to high quality training for small and medium enterprises who want to grow. At PfL we work very closely with our clients, for example helping to identify where the skills gaps are and putting a package together to meet them.”
Not surprisingly, Counterline have now contracted with PfL to deliver all their SkillWorks training and have also benefited from other programmes such as Project Myriad. Again run by PfL in partnership with Merseyside LSC, Project Myriad offers SMEs access to heavily subsidised management and leadership training.
“Myriad’s been a fantastic success in terms of developing people’s performance and team work” says Krys, “and now we have the SkillWorks programme which has come at a great time for us. With the help of PfL we’re acquiring the skills we need to deliver major growth for the firm.”