Sir Gavin Williamson recently visited the offices of Stafford based telemarketing specialists, HBMtelemarketing, to meet the team and find out about their work. HMBtelemarketing use their data driven expertise to link organisations with apprentices.
Helen Bancroft Morris said: “I was delighted when Sir Gavin accepted the invitation to meet at our offices. We have undertaken a lot of work around skills and education, two areas I know are very close to him.”
In 2021 Gavin Williamson presented the Government White Paper: Skills for Jobs: Lifelong Learning for Opportunity and Growth which proposed many reforms including apprenticeships that really work for employers, T-levels and Local Skills Improvement Plans.
Last year HBMtelemarketing ran an award-winning campaign with Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce to design and deliver a survey to ensure employers have a bigger say in the Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP).
The Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire LSIP is the final one of 38 plans to be designated by the Department for Education (DfE) across the UK.
Helen Bancroft Morris said: “Before our meeting I was unaware that Sir Gavin had signed off the LSIP legislation during his time as a government minister. He was interested to hear how we had targeted employers, particularly in manufacturing, engineering, and digital sectors to get their opinions and gauge their likelihood of engaging with the LSIP.
“During the visit we nipped next door to our client, Francesco Group. Last year we ran a campaign on their behalf to reverse the decline in recruiting apprentice hairdressers, the life blood of their industry. We introduced Sir Gavin to a couple of the new apprentices and talked about the importance of using quality data for effective results. Through this campaign we helped Francesco Group to increase its annual apprenticeship recruitment by almost 100 percent.”
Sir Gavin also met Pramila Limbu and Liam Collins from HBMtelemarketing and heard about the two current T-level apprentices working at HBMtelemarketing, Saskia Dyer (business management and administration) and Fel Hayden, (digital design and production).
Sir Gavin Williamson said: “It was a pleasure to meet Helen and her team and to find out about how they are playing a key role plugging the skills gap. The quickest route to building our economy is the development of skills and upskilling. Staffordshire is very proactive with the skills agenda, and I remain committed as an MP to making sure we provide the best opportunities for young people to grow our economy.”
