Winner: Innovation in Professional Development 2018

Premier Technical Services Group, founded in 2007, is the UK’s leading supplier of façade access and fall arrest equipment, electrical services, high-level cleaning and training solutions. It identified the need for one organisation to provide multiple niche specialist services and now offers a ‘bundled services provision’ enabling customers to receive products and services from its four divisions.During the past 10 years and through 23 acquisitions it has established 17 service centres nationwide, recruited 641 highly trained staff, and now serves a customer base of 17,000 companies and 150,000 assets. It has also won 12 top industry awards.

The company has placed a strong emphasis on training and professional development, and in 2015 it invested £1 million in establishing a training centre, appointing a group assessor to become a CITB-approved training organisation (ATO), and is now helping to training applicants seeking grant-funded training through the Construction Trainee Directory – a task the company sees as vital to address the post-Brexit skills gap.

Best practice learning points:

• Spotting a gap in the market by pulling together differing but complementary and cohesive FM/construction disciplines.

• The PTSG team showed forethought and astuteness by anticipating the possible ramifications of a Leave vote in the 2016 referendum by aiming to close up the likely skills gap by investing in training for all its disciplines.

• A dedication to providing the highest quality of customer service at the most competitive prices.

• Building on its offer by nurturing a team of highly skilled and qualified operatives as trainers.

• Elaborating on its training ethos by collaborating with other industry organisations in symbiotic relationships.

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