in brief

This month’s news in brief

BMW targets woman

BMW (GB) is seeking to attract a higher number of female technicians to its
dealer service training programmes to redress the current balance of only one
qualified female technician out of 300. The initiative includes sending
information to schools and surveying dealerships to ensure equal
opportunity-friendly environments. Career planning manager at BMW Roger Waters
said: "When searching for the best school leavers it is crazy to ignore
half of them."

Driving development

Golf is playing its part in furthering employee development at 4×4 vehicle
manufacturer Land Rover. Huge interest was shown in the game by its 11,500
workforce during a pilot project in early 2003 and now up to 500 employees a
year are expected to take advantage of a number of tailored lesson packages.
Lessons are funded by the Associate Development Scheme – an independent
organisation within Land Rover formed by negotiations with the trade unions to
enable employees to take up non-work-related education. Rover has spent
£230,000 so far on activities ranging from plumbing to Salsa dancing, with
£90,000 of this spent on golf.

Safety boost

Accident frequency rates have been cut by 75 per cent at aluminium extruder
Sapa Profiles after it introduced the metal industry’s health and safety
passport scheme. The scheme, which tests knowledge and individual competence
on-the-job, was aimed at line managers, foremen and team leaders. In less than
10 months accidents were down by 30 per cent. 
www.metskill.co.uk

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Aunty scoops award

BBC Learning has been voted training provider of the year. The products and
services giant was honoured at the recent World of Learning Conference and
Exhibition (WOLCE) awards in Birmingham’s NEC last November. The Learning
Resource Centre Manager of the Year is Sue Horder of Airbus UK.   www.learnevents.com