Cadbury is one of the world’s largest confectionery businesses, operating on a global level. Recently, Pearson in Practice has been working with one of the company's distribution centre teams, based in Sheffield, to provide NVQs in Warehousing and Storage and Logistics Operations Management. The Sheffield depot boasts a warehouse capacity of over 6,000 pallets and operates a two shift system in order to ship confectionery worldwide.

"We were contacted by Andrea Eksteen of Pearson in Practice" says Cadbury Depot Support Manager, Chris Hodgkins. “We'd wanted to find the right development programme for our staff for some time and when Andrea explained about how Pearson in Practice operated and described the way that they could provide NVQs to the team, we saw it as the perfect fit."

“The Pearson in Practice approach was exactly what we wanted, they could assess our team on the job, also that there would be no need for endless form filling or college attendance. We believe strongly in developing our people and having the best possible team in place. The fact that the Pearson in Practice programme results in a qualification is important not only to the business, but also to our guys. It was very cost effective too, given that Pearson in Practice arranged all the funding, so the training was effectively free.”

“A few of the guys were initially worried about the programme; however this was overcome from day one when they met Richard, the Pearson in Practice Profiler, and Sean the NVQ Assessor. As soon as their questions were answered, the team fully embraced it all."

“It's a painless operation. Everything is done on the job. All the tasks that the guys have to demonstrate for the NVQ are real and all happened naturally during the course of the work. Nothing had to be staged and the guys didn’t have to take time away from the job – apart from the initial profiling and induction session, which took about an hour.”

“Pearson in Practice handled all of the paperwork and writing on behalf of the guys, making it completely painless for us. We could get on with our jobs whilst Pearson in Practice sorted our NVQs. We suffered no loss of service in our volumes. The whole programme was carried out on our terms – a very supportive approach. Fantastic.”

“It's been a great experience, we’ve all really enjoyed it and it didn’t get in the way of the day to day operation. Sean Rafferty, the Pearson in Practice assessor, got to know the team, spending time to build relationships. It’s a real personal service; Sean has an industry background and understood how things worked – completely different to a college experience.”

“I'd recommend Pearson in Practice’s delivery as it benefits the business. Financially, its government funded, so it's a no brainer – especially in this current climate. Your team gains industry relevant qualifications that they get to keep, improving their career prospects as well as building levels of commitment and motivation. I'm currently taking a Level 3 NVQ with Pearson in Practice and I’ll certainly be happy to have that qualification in my back pocket.”

“Now that we’ve been through the programme, we are sharing our experience with other parts of the business. We’re proud that all of our warehouse team are now qualified.”