Andy Rayner, Director of Apprenticeships and Early Careers at Travis Perkins plc tells us how the firm is embedding Essential Digital Skills training into its existing apprenticeship programmes.
“Recently, I was at a Travis Perkins branch and I overheard a colleague saying he’d received some photos from a customer on WhatsApp about an issue he was struggling with. The colleague needed to get these photos off WhatsApp and send them by email to someone else, but he didn’t know how to do this.
“Other members of staff came to help him but none of them could get the photos onto email either. They had to wait until the one member of their team who was digitally confident came back to sort it all out, which he did in a few minutes. This is a prime example of the challenge we’re facing at Travis Perkins plc.
“We have a predominantly male, ageing workforce whose digital capability and confidence is low, and they can be pretty reluctant to take the necessary steps to change this. Also, we have customers who are increasingly using digital to contact us and talk about their needs.
“What we’re doing to tackle this challenge is maximise the potential of our apprenticeships.”
“They run across our business and at all levels, from the shop floor to managing director level. Half of our apprentices are already in our business and are often looking to move to the next step in their careers. They also have an average age of 35.
“Originally, whoever did an apprenticeship was given training on digital and data. What we witnessed at our branches and in other areas of our business was that these people became a reference point for their local team regarding digital skills. This meant digital knowledge and skills started to gradually and organically spread through Travis Perkins group.
“After monitoring this, we decided we wanted to make this informal coaching a more structured part of our apprenticeships. So, from there, we started to work with FutureDotNow and speak to other members of its network about how best to do this.”
“Digitally, we wouldn’t be where we are now without the support of FutureDotNow.”
“The support we received really helped us to get our thinking in the right place. We have now successfully embedded digital skills training in the majority of our apprenticeship programmes.
“It equips our apprentices with the specific digital skills they need and the coaching skills to provide face-to-face support to their colleagues. This support focuses on three key areas: building digital confidence, data entry and signposting to resources that meet a person’s individual needs.
“Overall, this training approach is really working for us. We know our digital capability as an organisation is growing at the right pace for our business, our colleagues and our customers.”
What’s your advice to others?
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Embedding your Essential Digital Skills programme into your company’s existing plans can increase the chance of adoption.
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Face-to-face training from a colleague can help to ease an employee’s fears about digital, especially if they’re an older member of your workforce.
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Slowly building up your workforce’s understanding of digital can lead to higher levels of engagement and digital skills.
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Relating training to real-world tasks can help employees see the benefit of acquiring digital skills.
How has FutureDotNow supported you?
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We’ve been connected with other members of FutureDotNow who have helped shape our training. These members include Asda, Barclays, M&S and Lloyds Bank.
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FutureDotNow introduced Travis Perkins plc to the Barclays Digital Eagles team, who have created bespoke pathways on its Digital Wings platform for our employees.
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Our membership and FutureDotNow events have helped Travis Perkins plc raise our profile in this space and become a digital skills leader in the construction supply sector.
Embedded learning is just one of the training models used by FutureDotNow coalition members to digitally upskill the workforce. To see a breakdown of other models and hear from the companies that use them, click below.