Developing sweet behaviours with biscuit manufacturer, Pladis

Pladis UK works in the food manufacturing industry and is one of the UK’s largest snack and biscuit companies, with over 4,000 employees. They work with well-known brands such as McVitie’s, Jacobs and Carr’s.  They make many household favourites, including HobNobs, Chocolate Digestives, Mini-Cheddars and Victoria biscuits. 

Through referrals and recommendations, Pladis UK reached out to Skern Training and Skills as they needed support with a team-building program for their Engineering Apprentice Cohorts after they had completed their first tuition blocks at BMET. 

Skern spent time prior to the course understanding how the apprentice experience is designed within the business at PLADIS and identified opportunities to reinforce the behaviours in the standard, bringing it to life with experiences from their day to day environment. It also highlighted a chance to embed their company values, which aligned really well with what was being covered on the course. This addition was well-received and enabled returns on investment to be amplified further.

Christopher Pinder, L&D Manager Apprenticeships, said: “Birmingham Metropolitan College recommended Skern Training and Skills to us as they have used them with their client base. The team are professional and highly engaging”. 

At Skern, we pride ourselves on working closely with our clients to align programmes to their company values, behaviours and goals. In this particular case, Pladis UK sent apprentices to Skern Training & Skills every November for a four-day, tailored behavioural programme via BMET college. 

Christopher Pinder, continues: “Our apprentices found the week challenging but had a great experience that significantly built confidence and focused on team building.” 

Richard Thomas, Executive Director at Skern Training and Skills, had this to say about the work we do together; “The Learning and Development team at PLADIS have worked closely with Skern over several years to create a meaningful and worthwhile programme for their apprentices.  The dates of the course align nicely with the interventions of BMET College who are their training provider. The programme has been reviewed each year and adjusted to reflect the most recent changes to the business environment, ensuring the details align and enhance the overall message/vision. This, dovetailed with a detailed exploration of the required behaviours, creates a really strong programme to ensure each apprentice gets as much from each course as possible. This is in turn, well evidenced and enjoyed by each apprentice far into their future career, creating a legacy of behavioural excellence.”