Safestyle opens unique national training centre to produce UK’s best installation teams

A new National Installation Training Centre of Excellence, the first of its kind in the UK and designed to produce the country’s best qualified and customer-conscious installation personnel in the replacement window and door industry, has been opened in Birmingham by market-leaders Safestyle UK.

The new £250,000 two-storey Centre has already secured 40 jobs to lift a little gloom on the Birmingham employment horizon. It will also be used by the leading training provider, Proskills Ltd. and the Sutton Coldfield and Matthew Boulton colleges to provide not just Safestyle installers but also hundreds of external youngsters with the opportunity to improve their skills and gain industry relevant qualifications in the glass and glazing sector.

Following two years of planning and building, the Centre - located on the Maybrook Business Park in the Minworth area of Birmingham - now forms part of Safestyle’s unique on-going continuous improvement programme designed to provide world class customer service and training for all its employees throughout the country. It also forms an important part of the company’s new vision placing customer service as the number one priority to a point where it is exceptional and regarded as the “norm”. 

The new venture will ensure that by April 2009 all Safestyle installers will be NVQ (National Vocational Qualification) Level 2 accredited with new installers receiving rigorous training and existing employees regular refresher courses. The Centre will offer “live” workshop experiences and a training facility designed to cover the most difficult installation processes.

Throughout its development Safestyle has worked closely with the Glass and Glazing Federation, the leading training provider, Proskills Ltd. and both Sutton Coldfield and Matthew Boulton Colleges in Birmingham.

Steve Birmingham, Managing Director of Safestyle UK Limited, commented: “This centre of excellence is all about giving our installers an opportunity to hone their skills and develop new ones. As a company we set extremely high standards especially when it comes to our products and customer service. However, without investment in key areas these are just hollow words. Over the last 18 months we have invested over £1.5 million on new machinery and buildings but our people remain the key.  All our employees need to continue to be well trained and it is essential that our installers, who are out on the front line lead the way.”

Ian Chisholm, Deputy Chair of the Glass and Glazing Federation, added: “It is fantastic to see a company commit to training its staff especially in today’s difficult economy. It is an extremely well thought out centre and stands alone in the glass sector.

“The success of any organisation depends on its workforce; a skilled workforce provides greater flexibility, improved efficiency and the ability to achieve high levels of customer satisfaction. These are critical with an increasingly competitive market place.”

Mike Smedley, Director Corporate Business at MET Training Sutton Coldfield-Matthew Boulton Colleges commented: “As training providers and employers we have a commitment to improve the skills of young people and adults to ensure that our workforce is equipped with the right skills to meet the challenges of their workplace now and in the future.

“We strongly believe that the Partnership between Safestyle UK and METtraining, the business development directorate of Sutton Coldfield and Matthew Boulton College working in strategic partnership, truly demonstrates an outstanding demand-led training model that supports workforce development.

“The first group of installation fitters and surveys from this depot (Minworth Sutton Coldfield) are currently undergoing their training programme and we look forward to celebrating their successful completion of their programme and in their achievement of full level two and three National Vocational Qualification.”


Picture: Safestyle UK’s Managing Director Steve Birmingham (left) and infamous “windowman” Jeff Brown (right) check out the new Installation Centre of Excellence in Birmingham.