Powertecnique wins South Coast Business Award

Founded in 1991, Powertecnique’s 56 strong workforce comprises a nationwide team of engineers, in-house project management team and administration support team. The company invested in 2.38 training dates per employee per month by end 2012 and plans to increase this by end 2013.

Managing director Darren Pearce said, ‘People deliver the business and our success, and we have a really strong commitment to education and training because we know it fuels our growth. The other three finalists are outstanding companies, and we were surprised and delighted to win.

‘I started off in this industry as an apprentice and I recognise the importance of training people up through apprenticeship schemes and graduate development. We have an apprentice scheme which runs for 3.5 years and effectively delivers the engineers who earn our income.’

Ben Johnson joined Powertecnique as an apprentice in 2007 with little knowledge of power systems, UPS or generators. He is now a fully trained engineer with a BSc in Electronic Engineering which he studied for whilst employed at Powertecnique. Darby Thomas joined the company to work in telemarketing in 2008 and is now working internationally with Level 2 CAD and Prince2 qualifications and will soon be earning significant income for the business.

The Award was sponsored by British American Tobacco (BAT) and its purpose is to recognise, encourage and reward organisations that have made and continue to make a significant contribution to the continuous training and education of individuals or groups.

Alex Osborne, BAT spokesperson, said, ‘Powertecnique’s commitment to changing the culture of their business by unleashing the potential of every employee is a priority throughout the company. With each employee averaging over 20 training days per year, plus quarterly briefing and training days and a 90 per cent increase in training budgets, the company’s belief that education and training go hand in hand with profitability and engaged employees was clear for our judges to see.

‘Along with a very successful apprenticeship scheme and strong links with Portsmouth University for knowledge sharing and graduate recruitment, this made their entry truly stand out against some very tough competition.

‘Their commitment to offer not just training but genuine development opportunities for every employee was echoed by solid financial gain and business growth.’

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