Cumberland Packaging Cumberland Packaging, having moved to a 52,000 square feet factory in March 2002, gained centre approval for NVQ assessments. As a typical independent sheet plant we saw the NVQ as a vehicle to benchmark the quality of our production employees. We employ 35 shop floor personnel with varying degrees of skills; the NVQ structure pushed us into formalising and documenting our training which in turn allowed us to create a job grading structure based on skills and abilities. This process then allowed us to gain recognition for "Investors in People". The process for centre approval was swift and seamless with support all the way from the CPA. We then identified Assessors and Internal Verifiers who were taken through the qualifications with minimal disruption and cost supported once again by the CPA. Once ready we registered four candidates for full NVQ level 2 conversion which will take approximately 6 months to complete. We can summarise what the scheme means to us as a company and individuals as follows. The NVQ scheme is a vehicle which has knitted together our training, job grading, health and safety awareness, and improved our quality and productivity via employee ownership of their own skills. We are constantly being told that a company's greatest assets is its people which the scheme allows us to fairly benchmark these assets. Our mission statement is to be the leading independent in the south east and we see the NVQ structure as a vital ingredient to this goal. John Watson |