Skills For Growth caters to the needs of Scottish businesses with ambition

Lovat’s, a catering engineering company for 35 years, was bought over by husband-and-wife Michael and Pam Floyd in July 2021. They had plans to extend the services provided and ultimately grow the business.

Pam, a director with Lovat’s said: “Many of our clients are local authorities or universities, so we started off with a really good client base. We wanted to expand the business and include facilities management as part of our growth.

“We were introduced to Kathryn Hill from Skills Development Scotland by Samir Rhazali at Business Gateway. Having Kathryn come into our lives was just the best thing ever – the timing was perfect. We took the business over in July and were introduced to Kathryn in the August.”

Skills for Growth is a fully-funded service for companies with between five and 250 employees and helps employers identify and understand their skills needs. A detailed Employer Action Plan is developed with guidance towards the most relevant training, funding and local business support which is based on their identified skills needs. 

Pam said: “We had a call with Kathryn, and we then underwent a process of speaking with staff to get their insight into challenges they faced and ways to make Lovat’s a better place to work. We then got a people skills action plan, followed by an employer action plan.

“Actions from the plan included accessing funding which allowed us to undertake some training. We were introduced to Fife College as a learning provider for our Modern Apprenticeships.

“At the moment we have three apprentices – two doing business admin and one engineering apprentice. This supports our strategy of not only creating jobs in the Fife area, but also creating apprenticeship opportunities.

“We got involved with Fife Healthy Workplaces, helping signpost us to things for staff, like bereavement counselling services, and we’ve undertaken leadership management courses and recruited a new Operations Director to support the day-to-day running of the business.

“We’ve been put in contact with a number of initiatives which we wouldn’t have been aware of if it wasn’t for Skills for Growth. We also got access to funding which enabled us to upskill our engineers.

“Kathryn is always there to help and support us. If we do need some help, we just get in touch with her. She’s still there supporting us.”

Kathryn Hill, Employee Engagement Executive with Skills Development Scotland said: “From my first introduction with Mike and Pam they showed such a passion to bring the staff onboard with their growth plans. This meant identifying skills gaps and looking at ways to have the best foundation to enable their plans.

“Their workforce was always at the heart of everything, and this has been proved over the years I have been working with them. I’ve really enjoyed watching them go from strength to strength.”

The company have seen a big difference in staff engagement. Pam said: “We’ve been able to develop some junior staff with training, we’ve improved our induction process for new employees and now have a cloud-based HR system.

“We’ve got structured performance reviews and development plans in place for each employee. We’ve engaged with SMAS and as a result introduced LEAN principles which has improved efficiencies in the warehouse. Our next step is to improve our recruitment processes.”

The company has recently opened an office in Midlothian as part of their business growth. They’ve gone from having 30 employees to now having 48.

Pam added: “I would absolutely 100% recommend Skills for Growth to other businesses. It’s made a massive difference to us as a small business. It’s been wonderful for us and our staff.”

To find out more about Skills for Growth and how it can help your business, visit employers.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk or call 0800 783 6000