Quality Education
Last month we looked at Sustainable Development Goal 13: ‘Climate Action, celebrating our decarbonisation efforts, including MAV and Hollco’s 100% renewable energy suppliers, AGD’s solar farm and green gas supplier, and our new Electric Vehicle (EV) and EV charging points across sites.
This month we focus on Sustainable Development Goal 4: ‘Quality Education’. This goal’s targets are about inclusive and equitable access to education, lifelong learning and training opportunities. Our greatest impact towards this goal involves collaborating with local educational institutions and developing the skills – both vocational and recreational – of our employees and our local communities.
The Traffic Group has an abundance of examples of employees evolving into more advanced positions through training opportunities, but also of students from different stages of education coming to gain work experience. Here are a few recent case studies:
Work Experience
The Traffic Group offers work experience to Year 10+ students. Typically, these students will be given an overview of the business including production, engineering and commercial. This month, TGS has had two work experience students.
Kamill, TGS Pike
Kamill expressed an interest in computer programming and technology, and developed. a miniature 4-way set of traffic lights running on fixed times in addition to the standard work experience.
“It was great to participate in the work experience, helping young minds realise their potential in school and the future workplace. I think Kamill left excited to embark on new programming adventures armed with some resistors, LEDs and an Arduino.”
Tom Robertson, TGS Test Engineer
Todd, TGS Hollco
Todd has been assisting in trialling additional training courses such as conflict management in addition to the overview of our operations, providing a wide-ranging introduction to topics within the workplace.
“My work experience has been very valuable and useful for me, and I am very appreciative of the time that you and your colleagues took out to help me. I enjoyed helping to assemble the traffic lights most and seeing how Sarah’s job works with the balance sheets. I think that this experience will help me in the future because it has given me a valuable insight into a business and has made me possibly want to start my own business one day”
Todd
Greener Highways School Partnership
We have now nominated our first school ‘Witton Middle School’ in Droitwich to receive our Greener Highways ‘First Shoots’ Starter Pack Nomination.This free resource bundle will help the school with further sustainability studies for their students and hopefully lead to some collaborative learning events in the future.
Continuing Professional Development
The Traffic Group actively encourages its employees to expand their knowledge and develop their skills through training opportunities – from AAT Accounting courses to advanced software training. We have even adapted work roles to allow individuals to seek training for personal aspirations outside of TGS.
MAV Systems is currently sponsoring two employees for their undergraduate degrees in Business and Management at the Open University. They are given the opportunity to flexibly organise their work and study demands within their week
TGS team member is mid-way through a management training course after expressing the desire to develop their leadership skills. The coursework has led to them engaging with colleagues across the led to them engaging with colleagues across the Group companies.
Learners Quotes
“The management degree MAV systems have put me on is a leadership and management BA honours degree, this is helping me learn multiple aspects of the business. Within my first year, I have learnt about how a business works on the financial side as well as how to lead a team of staff members dealing with multiple layers. This includes conflict, communication, reports, personal impact, social intelligence, time management, organisational culture and many other areas.
I have managed to put this into practice within the workplace and this has greatly helped my skills as a manager. This course has helped me take a step back and look at the business and which areas to focus on to output higher quality products at a quicker turnaround time as well as improve workplace relationships to help involve all members of staff in decision making. The course has also helped me with dealing with conflict in the workplace and improving the way in which conflict is dealt with. I have gained a lot of knowledge in my personal managing experience have learned a lot about how to deal with situations and how to manage different people. I’ve always struggled with punctual writing and this course is helping me develop this skill with the reports and writing a detailed portfolio of all the work I carry out within the business.
By the end of the course, I will have a BA honours degree and a full portfolio of my leadership and management skills that I have applied within the business, outlining all the skills I have learned and what projects I have worked on over the 4 years.”
Sean Keeble
Did you know?
The Traffic Group subsidises the membership of professional bodies such as IET, CIPD, CIM, and IOD.
Apprenticeships
Tom began working for Hollco as a production operative back in 2015 and expressed a keen interest to evolve his role when new opportunities became available in product development for the RC2.
fter demonstrating exceptional progress in his new role within the software engineering project team, Tom was encouraged to pursue his BTEC L3 qualification.
As TGS’ sole Test Engineer, Tom now plays a crucial part in testing all software used in new and existing radio-connected portable signals at TGS to ensure high-quality functionality. This is done alongside completing NVQ design projects for our testing facility.
Qualifications
BTEC Level 3 Electrical/Electronic Engineering
Enrolling in Electronic and Computer Engineering BEng(Hons) Degree in 2022/23
Mateusz has worked at AGD for 6 years, initially recruited as a production operative. His positive attitude, engaging personality and willingness to take on a challenge is demonstrated through his progression from moving into the service centre and enrolling in a BTEC Electronic course early on, to undergoing intensive training and joining the engineering team prior to the retirement of his colleague and mentor.
He has made exceptional progress and is now responsible for designing all PCBs for the products being developed by AGD and works closely with the electronic design engineers.
Qualifications
BTEC Level 3 Electrical/Electronic
Engineering
HNC in Electrical/Electronic
Engineering
Enrolling for HND from September 2022
The Traffic Group has rarely turned down any request for training that compliments career aspirations. When putting together this newsletter, it was amazing how many colleagues were eager to talk about their training and progression with us. If you wish to know more about how your role can be tailored around any desired training, we encourage you to start the conversation with your Line Manager.
Useful Links – Podcasts
When it comes to sustainability and climate change, a little knowledge can go a long way to making you feel more in control. We’ve put together a shortlist of podcasts that cover everything from practical tips empowering you to make a difference, to deep dives into the root causes of the changing temperature.
[All podcasts are freely available on your usual platforms, or on their online website.]
Sustainable(ish)
The Edie Podcast
Sustainababble
How to Save a Planet (Spotify Original)
The Big Green Money Show (Deborah Meaden)
