Pressing for change
31st January 2012

Danny Williams, managing director of trade frame manufacturer Pioneer Trading, was invited to a presentation by a government minister promoting training initiatives in Essex, where Pioneer Trading has its factories.

Introduced to John Hayes MP, Minister of State for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning, Danny took the opportunity to urge the government to offer greater incentives to companies that take part in government employment schemes. “Pioneer takes people from the various government employment schemes largely because we want to put something back into society,” Danny said. “There are advantages to us as the people we take have been vetted and pre-trained by an agency, in our case the Trade Skills Academy at Romford, but a fiscal incentive from the government would make it a lot more attractive for more companies to take that first step, many of whom do not believe there is sufficient reason to even look at the schemes available.”

Danny took advantage of the meeting with the Minister to press his point: “We have had some excellent people through because we stuck our necks out and tried it and I explained that to Mr Hayes, who appeared to be sincere and interested in what was being said.

“That might sound naive, but I have been in the glazing industry for more than 20 years now and I think I can spot a fibber when I see one,” he joked.

Picture: Danny Williams pressed his suggestion for tax breaks and other incentives for employers partcipating in re-employment schemes when he met John Hayes MP, Minister for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning, recently.