Kirstie Donnelly MBE, Chief Executive of City & Guilds said “The Princess Royal Training Awards has become the ‘gold standard’ for training, learning and development, and continues to demonstrate how these can open up opportunities and attract new talent to industries with significant skills gaps and labour shortages. This year’s recipients have shown innovation and commitment to development within their own organisations, including those which have successfully tackled contemporary skills challenges which bring us closer to net zero, as well as others who have introduced unique and interesting programmes to ensure that traditional skills do not disappear.”

Nigel Lempriere, TECNIQ CEO said “We are thrilled to win such a prestigious award and be among a cohort of world-leading businesses.

Our in-house Composite Laminating Training Programme has been a great success developing a cadre of manufacturing specialists with the rare and valuable skills we need to deliver some of the most prestigious vehicle programmes in the world, for our prestigious clients.

We were also very keen to create to engage with a wide range of people to create opportunities for all. We have been able to work with a wide range of willing and able people from the young taking the first or next steps in career development, to skilled people from other sectors and disciplines, to people who’s life circumstances need accounting for.”

Tony Smith, TECNIQ COO said “Being recognised for such a meaningful and business-driven award is brilliant. Our in-house training programme has not only provided us with the scarce and specialised skills we required but enabled us to meet the high watermark that our ultra-premium vehicle development programmes demand. The benefits to the business in terms of production, quality and resource management have outstripped what we could have hoped to achieve and eclipsed our previous resourcing model.”

Now in its ninth year the Princess Royal Training Award, created by City & Guilds and run by the City & Guilds Foundation, celebrates organisations in the UK and Ireland who can prove that their training and skills development programmes have resulted in exceptional benefits for their business.

With skills training increasingly cited as key to improving productivity challenges within the economy, creating learning programmes that develop talent, new and existing, is more important than ever

At TECNIQ we design, engineer and manufacture major elements of some of the most premium car programmes in the world, for some of the most exclusive car brands. The specialist skills required have traditionally been the product of the UK’s Motorsport Valley,
an area around the Midlands and Oxfordshire which has become a hotbed for companies supplying the motorsport industry. That leads to a scarcity in other areas of the UK, traditional recruitment is therefore tough.

Our Composite Training Programme addresses the following:

1. A scarcity of composite laminating skills rare in our local job market
2. The need to continually grow as production demands grow
3. The future-proof our resourcing as new programmes are brought on-stream

We quickly identified a colleague who possessed the training experience, technical expertise and temperament to lead our programme and set about recruiting trainees, some with transferable skills, some with no technical skills. Over a period of 12 months reaching a level of skill that would meet our growth requirements.

Matt Jessop, Composite Lamination In-House Trainer, said “A benefit of the in-house training programme has been that, as well as developing the skills we need, a growing cohesive work culture. By building an in-house team we have seen more committed colleagues, looking to progress and I am more experienced now and a better trainer. Having a nice strong workforce here, will grow the company.”

We were also keen to play our part in creating flexible opportunities for people in the local economy. Skills and dexterity were tested at interview alongside the broader characteristics of passion, professional pride and interpersonal skills.

Mark (not his real name) – previously a dental technician who had suffered a medical episode, presented significant skills from the medical devices sector and was looking to find a position that suited his need for a mindful ramping back to work. He was appointed to the role of assistant trainer.

Ilsa (not her real name) – a Polish national, needed flexibility to enable her to attend college to learn English. We were able to accommodate.

Michelle (not her real name) – a cleaner in our manufacturing facility was facing health issues related to the chemicals used. She approached us to find a solution and joined the training programme becoming one of our most successful trainees. In addition to learning a new skill Michelle’s earning potential has significantly increased.

Sam Freeman, Carbon Fibre Laminator said “I can be quite skittish, I find myself concentrating more than I have in previous roles, the jobs helps me to focus and the days have gone quicker.

Everyone works together, as much as we’re all doing separate things, everyone comes together. If you’ve done apart and someone else hasn’t finished you sit there and you help the other person.

It is an honour, to create components for such exclusive cars. I feel proud to have got to a level where I’m building advanced components for these vehicles. To have worked my way up to that level is great. I sit back and think wow!.”

Sam Wood, Composite Laminator Trainee, said “Coming in early on, I found it a bit overwhelming. I didn’t think it would be for me. It was a big change from desk-based, computer-based working. Tools, materials, being surrounded by lots of people. Very different.

It is a satisfying role. To be making components, out of exotic materials, that go to make up exclusive and ultra-expensive cars, owned and loved by people is great. I’ve always loved cars and engineering so to work in this field, employing some of my passions and skills from my own model-maker hobby, is also a huge bonus.

It’s nice to feel I’ve achieved something, I’ve made something, something important in these car programmes. I feel a lot more confident in myself and I’d love to keep growing in TECNIQ, to get to a senior departmental position.”

Not only has the training programme addressed the original circumstances forcing its inception it has brought a number of additional benefits to our business.

• Diversity – we are able to 1. recruit from a broader pool of candidates 2. By offering a flexible approach we are able to tap into capable candidates often prevented from entering the market due to personal circumstances (e.g. single parents with children at school).
• Cost control and reduction – reduction in payroll costs and a dependency on external contractors. This has resulted in an improvement of gross profit margins.
• A growing team and a growing culture – a larger team, who have been on a similar journey has brought cohesiveness to the department
• Training model – an approach deployable across the business’s various departments

Lee Smith, Operations Manager (Manufacturing) said “Being able to train people with potential is great. We’ve got people from more diverse backgrounds with either transferable skills or the right approach, all great team members because we train them. We opened up the opportunity to all, all walks of life, we have people on college courses studying English, that we can work around, mums needing more flexible work patterns, people from other industries such as dental technicians, people wanting to change careers, a cleaner who has moved into laminating.

For over 140 years the City & Guilds have worked with people, organisations and economies to help them identify and develop the skills they need to thrive. They understand the life changing link between skills development, social mobility, prosperity and success. They focus on developing and delivering high-quality training, qualifications and credentials that lead to jobs and meet the changing needs of industry. 

The City & Guilds partner with customers to deliver work-based learning programmes that build competency to support better prospects for people, organisations and wider society creating flexible learning pathways that support lifelong employability because they believe that people deserve the opportunity to (re)train and (re)learn again and again – gaining new skills at every stage of life, regardless of where they start.

We are a creative, technology-driven automotive design, engineering and manufacturing business that works alongside the world’s most lucrative brands in the ultra-exclusive, ultra-premium and ultra-high-value automotive sector.

TECNIQ has been built on developing unique, technology-led, cost-efficient processes, to enable the design, engineering and manufacture of ultra-premium vehicles.