Pictured above: Sally-Ann Jones

Notts-based national training provider Positive Outcomes has won contracts with two of the UK's top retail brands - Iceland and Thorntons - the UK's leading children's charity, Barnardo's, and the UK's largest privately-owned outsourced services provider Prolog.

Ranked as one of the Top 10 of independent providers of government-funded training in the UK, Positive Outcomes has signed Preferred Supplier Agreements (PSA) with Thorntons, Barnardo's and Prolog, and agreed an initial six-month pilot programme with Iceland to train 800 staff across 30 of its stores.

Under the agreements, Positive Outcomes' fifty-strong team of training advisors, learning advisors and business development managers will deliver tailored work-based training to thousands of learners nationwide.

Sally-Ann Jones, UK Sales Manager of Positive Outcomes' Training arm, explains: "Each of these training contracts indicates the importance of our creating and delivering 'employer responsive' bespoke, tailored training programmes that enhance and complement our client's own training and staff development activities. 

"Our team of training advisors, learning advisors and business development managers are working closely with each of these key clients and their personnel in first designing the right training for them, and second delivering the training in locations and under a framework which matches the strategy, needs and activities of their business and the individuals taking part."

Under the PSA with Derbyshire chocolate maker Thorntons, Positive Outcomes will work with dozens of its staff across its UK network of stores, including the Thorntons Café at Derby's Westfield Centre. The company already has an established working relationship with Thorntons, developed over the last two years, during which time many learners have moved onto higher level qualifications as their careers have progressed.  

"Positive Outcomes' team has been extremely helpful in both the creation and delivery of our training programmes," comments Thorntons' Training Adviser Jennie Hinchcliffe. "The two-year preferred Supplier Agreement includes NVQ training and qualifications for all staff from store managers to sales assistants."

Positive Outcomes originally undertook a six-month Preferred Supplier Agreement with children's charity Barnardo's to deliver tailored training to individual employees across its retail outlets under the Retail Level 2 NVQ Apprenticeship scheme. 

The charity's Future Jobs Fund Manager, Kay Banks, said: "Barnardo's Future Jobs Fund employees have been unemployed for a minimum of six months and for some, their confidence is very low. However, with support from Barnardo's and their own personal training advisor allocated to them from Positive Outcomes, over 90 percent have completed the NVQ.  This is an amazing achievement; one which the young people and Barnardo's are very proud of."

The training has so far involved over seventy-five young people at over fifty of the charity's stores in England. There are plans for a further 150, 18 to 24 year olds to be trained between now and September 2011. 

Ranked 13th in the 2010 Sunday Times Best Big Companies to Work for in the UK survey, Iceland is trialling the value of NVQ training as part of its overall strategy to improve customer service. The pilot with Positive Outcomes involves up to 800 staff in two key locations across thirty stores with all staff development programmes delivered in-line with the company's own internal training procedures and delivery. Iceland's Regional HR Manager Jeff Uden explains: "The pilot gives Iceland the opportunity to assess and measure the value and relevance of NVQ training. Once the pilot concludes in Spring 2011, we will review and evaluate its success and value to staff which if favourable, may lead onto the roll-out of the training programme across all our outlets and staff nationwide."

Prolog is recognised as a market leader in outsourced promotional and retail logistics and customer communications. The company has worked with Positive Outcomes to develop a programme of Business Administration NVQ Levels 2 and 3 at its Sudbury and Sherwood locations. The working partnership has involved over sixty learners across the two sites in the first phase of the two-year PSA with Positive Outcomes. The next phase will involve a further fifty learners who will undertake Distribution, Warehousing and Storage qualifications. Prolog NVQ Training Co-ordinator Joanne Butters says: "Positive Outcomes is supporting our multi sites and working with a variety of candidates with differing roles and responsibilities.  In particular, the one-to-one sessions have been really constructive and candidates have responded very positively to the training."

Positive Outcomes is an £8M turnover specialist recruitment and training organisation, which has offices across the UK and operates nationwide for public and private sector organisations.