For those leaving the armed forces, the transition to civilian life can be challenging. The Careers Transition Partnership (CTP) helps ex-service personnel find a new career by providing them funding for training.

Over the last four years, LCL Awards centre, MKC Training, a subsidiary of MidKent College, which specialises in construction and engineering, has been working with the CTP to support service leavers in finding new career paths.

The training centre is based in The Royal School of Military Engineering at Brompton Barracks in Kent and has a proven track record in supporting employers, training providers and awarding organisations. Consequently, MKCT has become the CTP’s preferred setting, serving learners from across the whole of the UK.

LCL Awards has worked with MKCT to develop a training package specifically for their learners, to ensure they get the most out of their re-training and the best start in the civilian career.

The start of the story

In 2016, MKCT, backed by the CTP, decided to extend their training provision to include ACS gas training. Having already established a relationship with CITB as an awarding body for other construction qualifications, MKCT chose them again for their gas assessments and began the process of accreditation.

New staff members were taken on and additional equipment procured in preparation for running a state of the art gas training centre. 

All was going well until a month before the first cohort of learners was due to start, the CITB announced they were pulling out of ACS assessments completely.

LCL Awards to the rescue

This left MKCT high-and-dry and in urgent need of a new awarding body. LCL Awards was called upon and quickly came on board to help them deliver the high quality training they required in a very short space of time.

David Owen, Programme Area Leader at MKCT, in charge of setting up ACS at the centre recalls:

“We frantically had to search for another awarding body. LCL Awards was chosen and with some exceptional help from their support staff, we managed to re-jig what we’d already set up in order to comply with their assessment process and implement their paperwork. LCL Awards made sure we were up and running - ready for our first course”

On-going support

The first course went very well, as did the following two, with 100% pass rates. But then there was another big shake up towards the end of 2017 when significant changes were made to gas legislation and the Managed Learning Programme (MLP) was introduced.

Once again, MKCT turned to LCL Awards for help in re-working their training and assessment processes in order to bring them in-line with the new standards.

Bespoke service with a customer-focused approach

MKCT was keen to help their learners augment their training, so they approached LCL Awards and asked them to develop a specific qualification; one that encompasses the MLP and a Level 3 Diploma in Gas Utilisation.

David Owen remembers:

“We worked together to come up with something really special. We mapped the diploma into the ACS and with support from LCL Awards were able to reduce the examination period by 59%. Service Leavers have a lot on their plates, with finding new homes and new schools for their kids, for example, and a lot of them found the previous assessment process too much to contend with. We’ve streamlined it now and it works much better for them.”

Their pass rates attest to this. MKCT, has now run 21 gas courses with 96% of learners successfully completing training. An impressive 87% of those who achieved the qualification have gone on to find work in the gas industry.

Tracy Harker, LCL Awards Quality Assurance and Relationship Manager sums up:

“LCL Awards is happy to work with centres to achieve the best results for them and their learners. We have been so delighted with the level 3 diploma enhanced examination process we’ve developed with MKCT that we have decided to roll it out across the UK so all centres can benefit.  We pride ourselves on customer service, offering bespoke partnerships and a can-do attitude. “

If there’s something your centre needs, please get in touch with us and we’ll see how we can help you.

For more information about MKCT, visit: www.mkctraining.com