Case Study: Kier Group Strengthen Training Quality Using EUSR’s Endorsed Training Programme Status  

The Situation

Kier Group identified a requirement to have all training delivered through their internal training centre to be accredited.

With an established portfolio of training programmes Kier needed to have their existing content aligned to recognised industry standards and be subject to third party quality assurance providing a similar level scrutiny as would be expected of a regulated qualification.

Alistair Gunn, Training Centre Manager at the Kier Training Hub said:

“We could have chosen almost any Awarding Organisation, but it made sense to use EUSR to endorse our training for two reasons:

Firstly quality & standards are of the utmost importance to us here at the Kier Training Hub, and we already deliver a variety of courses / schemes through EUSR and already receive audits and have an established relationship with the quality team.

And secondly, our experience of accessible and very effective communication across the whole of the EUSR organisation”

The Solution

Kier elected to use EUSR for the endorsement of their training programmes through the highly successful Endorsed Training Programme model of quality assurance. EUSR were able to provide Kier with advice, guidance and support to enable them to make successful applications for their initial four programmes of learning:

“As with all things you do for the first time, we started out not really knowing what the ETP process would be like to complete, and our Business Development Executive provided us with a guidance document. This is a clearly defined and simple step-by-step process to gaining ETP status for our courses, and our External Quality Assurer followed up with guiding us through the initial submission and subsequent approval process.”

The Outcome

By moving their internally developed courses into the ETP framework, Kier has strengthened the consistency and quality of its training offer. The approach has helped the organisation ensure courses are structured to clear standards, applied consistently across different regions:

“The ETP approval process ensures internal training has aims and objectives, learning outcomes and effective assessment strategies… applying the same internal (IQA) and external (EQA) quality checks as regulated qualifications.”

This greater visibility has made it easier for employees to carry their training record between projects and business units, supporting a more flexible and confident workforce:

“Having our courses as ETPs ensures operational staff’s training is recorded and available on the VIRCARDA App or online, as well as on the EUSR plastic cards that remain popular with operatives.”

Kier has also been able to embed a more robust and standardised approach across all trainers and training locations, improving quality and reducing variation:

“The quality checks and the need to conduct trainer observations and audits keeps delivery standards high and a standardised approach across many trainers in different geographical areas.”

Following the successful endorsement of the first four courses, Kier has also created a scalable process and plan to bring across their wider training portfolio to EUSR ETPs:

“After submitting and gaining four courses through the ETP process, we now have an established template and systems for moving all our internally developed courses over to EUSR’s ETPs.”

For more information about our endorsement service, please visit the dedicated page on our website.