The ceremony was held last Wednesday (27 January) and was attended by training partners, suppliers and some of the firm’s 400 employees.
The new learning facility, which will be known as ‘The ThINK Tank’, will enable the company’s staff to take part in a range of courses and benefit from other learning opportunities onsite.
Prinovis UK HR director Vicci Tatton, who conducted the opening ceremony, said: “I believe that learning is an integral part of our working lives and that as a responsible and forward-thinking employer it is our responsibility to provide employees with opportunities to grow and develop.
“A talented workforce is an integral part of any successful business and we here at Prinovis firmly support this view.”
She added: “The Learning Centre project was a real collaboration between Prinovis, Unite the Union, Skillsgen and our training partners which we carefully selected from a shortlist of potential providers.”
A range of tutor-led courses, which typically last for 10 weeks, are being financed by Prinovis with the exception of the training programmes provided by Unite, which receive government funding.
The courses scheduled throughout 2016, some of which are exam based and lead to recognised qualifications, include Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint delivered by Skillsgen, German by Cactus language school and two courses provided by Unite and delivered by West Cheshire College - Functional Skills and Basic Computer Skills.
Additionally, employees can also use the centre’s newly installed IT facilities for self-study and distance learning. Educational websites are provided by both Prinovis and Unite, while employees can also access online learning tool Lynda.com.
Unite head of lifelong learning Kenny Barron said: “The centre will create an environment where people can be upskilled for work-related opportunities, as well as upskilling in English, maths and IT for personal gain or helping children with their education.”
The centre’s opening is partly the result of the company’s 2015 Prinovis People Strategy, which saw it attain Investors In People accreditation in May 2015.
It also forms part of the firm’s commitment to tackle the UK’s literacy challenge, having been one of the inaugural signatories of the Vision for Literacy Business Pledge 2016; an initiative for businesses committed to tackling poor literacy rates in the UK by taking action in their workforce, in their local area and at a national level.
In December the company, which recently became 100%-owned by Bertelsmann, celebrated the launch of its programme in support of the initiative by holding a reading-themed Christmas party for its employees’ children.
