Planning the TQS Journey (1) What exactly are you trying to do to support employers?

Do you know?
Do your employers know?

Thank carefully about your answers, because those answers should be linked to what you know employers want.

I wrote about what employers want in an earlier post. You can re-read it here.

However, here’s what you need to do to help you to be clear about where you’re going.

Review what you currently say about how you support employers. (If you don’t have such a statement, then here’s your starting point.)

Remove everything from you statement that refers to: training, qualifications, courses, NVQ, Train to Gain, Apprenticeships, funding, skills . . . You get the picture.

Then remove any statements about helping employers to build a skilled workforce, or to meet their business objectives, or to solve their problems, or to become more profitable etc.

Why? Well, it’s aspirational and fuzzy and every one promises to do these things, so to get their business you need to do more – a lot more.

Stuck?

Here’s a clue. Those readers who have worked with us for quite a few years will remember our early How To Do More Business With Business programme. I used to say to anyone who asked me about it:

“We help colleges to do more business with business.”

It’s a simple statement.
It’s memorable. (People still quote it back to me.)
It encapsulates how we helped colleges then – and now.
It’s also the sort of thing the customer wants to hear, because it’s a statement about the benefits the customer will gain. It’s not about the products and services the provider can offer.

Employers want to hear about benefits they will gain, not what you can offer, when you talk to them.

So, December is a good time for strategic planning. Give some thought to the essence of what you do.

Write it down.

Work on your statement and refine it.

Succeed here, and you’ll also go a long way to preparing to write A0 in your TQS application.