SMART SKILLS Partners

SMART SKILLS is delivered through our range of quality SMART Partners; City College Plymouth, Focus Training, Petroc, South Devon College, On Course South West and the University of Exeter.  Our Partners offer flexible training solutions from one day workshops through to full qualifications.

City College

City College Plymouth are incredibly excited to launch a Digital Innovation Programme delivered flexibly around employer and learner needs and in response to local labour market requirements.  The exciting delivery offer will include Digital Training Analysis, Google Application Masterclasses to support businesses in maximising Google’s full potential and much more.

Our delivery content will be employer-led, understanding skills gaps and working with employers to upskill their existing workforce, and to address a skills need with a view to upskilling locally unemployed individuals.  The training delivery method can be anything from one-day intensive workshops through to ten-week flexible programmes; taster programmes, workshops, face-to-face, online and blended learning delivery to meet employer needs and individual learning styles.

Petroc

Petroc is one of the South West’s leading colleges committed to raising the aspirations, knowledge and skills of individuals, communities and businesses in Devon and beyond.  

Through the SMART Skills project our aim is to deliver provision and activities that will improve workforce skills and support individuals yet to achieve a suitable qualification. 
We can offer:  

  • An organisational needs analysis  
  • Bespoke training to meet those needs 
  • Recognised accredited qualifications and a supportive learning environment for your staff 
  • Pathways for individuals to achieve higher level skills ​

Petroc also encourages employers, specifically SMEs to engage within the skills system through curriculum co-design and co-delivery to look at realistic and practical ways of achieving their desired outcomes.  

We offer an extensive range of industry specific training courses that will support business development and growth. Courses can typically be delivered in house or at one of our North or Mid Devon campuses. We have also developed our digital delivery package and this is something that can also be developed upon request, if suitable.  

For more information, please contact smartskills@petroc.ac.uk

South Devon College

At South Devon College our mission is to ‘Inspire our community through learning for all’, and we are recognised by employers and students alike as one of the top Further Education and Tertiary Colleges in England.

Training will be delivered to the traditional South Devon College catchment area, focussing on Torbay and South Devon, but extending to the area broadly south of the A38, between Plymouth and Exeter.

The full range of campuses will be available for project delivery, including the main Vantage Point campus, South West Energy Centre, the Hi-Tech and Digital Centre and the Noss Marine Academy. Our delivery remains flexible in which most of our courses we can also teach remotely through Ms Teams with a mix of blended and online learning

We aim to deliver a suite of professional qualifications and specialised courses in composites that supports to upskill Devon-based business and eligible participants including small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); the self-employed or those that are unemployed looking at entering back into the workforce. Our programme offer remains flexible and reactive and currently consists of:

• L2 Certificate in Team Leading
• L3 Award in Education and Training
• L3 Award in Project Management
• L3 Certificate in Coaching and Mentoring
• Starting with Composites (workshop)
• Essential Composite Skills including Wet Lay-Up or Resin Infusion (workshop)
• What is Resin Transfer Moulding (workshop)
• What is Resin Infusion (workshop)
• Working with Pre-Preg Composites (workshop)
• Essential Composite Repair (workshop)

Business’s accessing funding will be supported by a dedicated colleague from our Employer Engagement Team in which they will support with identifying appropriate training that supports business needs, challenges and upskilling the workforce. All participants will be supported by comprehensive individual learning plan, with specific, tailored progression opportunities onto further, higher level learning including apprenticeships. Learners will be support on programme with teaching and assessment by highly industry experienced lecturers.

The Focus Training Group

The Focus Training Group works with local employers and potential participants in delivering short courses with clear development pathways.  We can deliver tailored and bespoke course in our Newton Abbot, Plymouth and Exeter centres.  Upon request we can also deliver on employer premises. We offer a blend of accredited and unaccredited courses.

As we continue our work with local employers and potential participants, we will look to expand our offer further to ensure we are meeting the needs of local businesses.

Find out more about The Focus Training Group at https://www.thefocustraininggroup.com.  For more information, email enquiries@thefocustraininggroup.com or Tel 01752 348980.

Management
We offer a variety of unaccredited management courses, ranging from 1-3 days depending on the modules selected.

  • Managing Staff, Development & Performance
  • Managing Recruitment, Selection & Retention
  • Managing Customers, Stakeholder Relationships
  • Managing Finances & Control
  • Managing The Decision-Making Process
  • Managing Marketing
  • Managing Customer Service Standards & Levels

Mental Health FAA (First Aid Awards Ltd)

  • Supervising First Aid for Mental Health – 2 day course
  • Awareness In First Aid for Mental Health – 1 day course
  • First Aid for Youth Mental Health – 1 day course

Trade

  • Introduction to Solar Photovoltaic – 1 day course
  • NICEIC Electric Vehicle Charging – 1 day course
  • Energy Efficiency – 1 day course
  • NICEIC Safe Isolation – 1 day course

On Course South West

On Course South West aims to support businesses now and for the future and people wanting support to look for work and to improve their employment prospects.. The On Course South West offer includes:

  • Employability – Personal development, CV writing, interview preparation
  • Digital Skills – Using Excel spreadsheets, Digital First Steps
  • Support for English Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) – These courses are designed to improve maths, digital and employability skills alongside developing English skills at the same time.
  • Wellbeing – Improve your confidence, develop mindfulness skills and build resilience that will help you to cope with life changes and the challenges of work.

For more information about our offer, contact us by email at ocswsmartskills@plymouth.gov.uk or on 01752 660713.

University of Exeter

The University of Exeter Q-Step Centre is going to deliver a series of training courses, which seeks to develop advanced data analytics skills. These are skills that are becoming increasingly adopted in a wide variety of areas by both small and large organisations.   

The proposed curriculum for the programme is as follows:  

  1. Essential Data Analysis skills- this involves introducing the participants to the principles of data analysis and the basics of statistical analysis.  
  2. R for data analysis- this course aims to develop understanding and skills with R, which is specialised scripting language designed for conducting statistical analysis.   
  3. Python for data analysis- this course is aimed at individuals who have never done any form of computer coding before. It introduces them to the nature of programming, and how to code in Python, before going on to show individuals how to use it for data analysis.   
  4. Using web and text data- using Python, this course gives participants the opportunity to learn how to build Twitter and website scrapers, as well as the special methods required in order to analyse this kind of data.  
  5. Machine learning and deep learning with Python- this course provides participant with the opportunity to learn the foundational principles of machine learning and to implement and train two classifiers: one for images and one for text.   

Please note currently only University of Exeter students are eligible to apply for the programme. For more information, please contact qstep@exeter.ac.uk