Unipart programme wins top training award


Unipart Group, one of Europe’s leading manufacturing, logistics and consultancy companies, has received a Princess Royal Training Award in recognition of its in-house management training and development programme.

This is the inaugural year of the Princess Royal Training Awards, which recognises the best training and skills development programmes. It is run by the City & Guilds Group and the judging was led by HRH The Princess Royal, who is President of the City & Guilds Group.

Judges of the award were impressed with Unipart’s commitment to training its people using its proprietary Unipart Way systems and technologies, such as the company’s Unipart Way Online product, to support training and development.

Earlier this year, Unipart was awarded the highest score possible in the Business in the Community Index, the UK’s leading benchmark for responsible business, which includes employee development amongst its criteria.

Unipart also won a national award for its employee wellbeing programme, Unipart Workwell, and was voted best in class for its leadership programme by graduates.

Unipart Chairman and Group Chief Executive John Neill said: “We’re very pleased to receive this recognition for our development programme, which has been created by the Unipart learning and development team.

“We recognised the importance of training and development programmes over 25 years ago when we opened The Unipart U – one of the first corporate universities in Europe – and established learning centres called Faculties on the Floor in all our locations.

“Developing our people to ‘learn at 10 and do at 11, has been essential to the success of the business and has enabled us to unlock potential and improve productivity in our own company and for our clients. It is a fundamental component of The Unipart Way, our proprietary system for continuous productivity improvement.”

City & Guilds Group Chief Executive, Chris Jones said: “Excellence doesn’t happen by chance. In today’s uncertain economy, more than ever, employers must align investment in training to the objectives of their business.

“Whether they’ve addressed a skills gap, improved productivity or developed new leaders to grow their businesses, the awarded organisations deserve to be recognised for their achievements.”