KMT Business Plan 2011

KM Training Ltd

Updated May 2011 TM

TM 04-2011 V7 12

KMT Business Plan 2011

KMT- The Business

a / Name KM Training Ltd.
b / Address / 2 Market Place,
Derby DE1 3PW
c / Limited Company
d / What does our business do?
Provider of learning, qualifications and continuous development in work-based context
Provides a business support service to Kieran Mullin Ltd
e / Date KMT started trading
06-August 1996
f / Date company was set up
April 02- company established (September 1996 Organisation established)
g / Mission Statement & Aims
We aim to:
Ø  offer and provide our learners* with training and development opportunities to enable them to achieve their full potential.
Ø  offer a business support service to Kieran Mullin Ltd (the employer), to promote a sustainable, high quality work-based learning environment.

* learners and apprentices in barbering, hairdressing & customer service

Aims

·  To provide a genuinely supportive environment for the personal, ethical and social development of all learners.
·  To ensure, in so far as possible, that all learners achieve their individual learning aims and objectives.
·  To ensure that learners achieve their full potential through our learning courses and apprenticeship frameworks and other appropriate learning programme.
·  To offer value for money through our partners who are funded through local councils and the Skills Funding Agency (SFA)
·  To ensure that the business consistently has a satisfactory turnover and maintains an effective cost of provision for profit and reinvestment and growth
·  To offer and support a healthy, safe and friendly work environment by working closely with the employer.
h / Capital structure
Shareholders Paid up value of shares % of Total
Teresa Mullin / 100.00%
Accounting Year / August-July to reflect educational funding cycle as our main customer

KMT product / service and the market place

a / Our products and services:
City and Guilds (C&G) approved training and education centre offering:
·  NVQs in Hairdressing, Barbering and Customer Service
·  Apprenticeship Frameworks, Foundation Learning, Diploma and Key Skills/ Functional Skills
·  Teaching and Learning Qualifications 6317/ 6318 for development of trainers and assessors
KMT offer a business support service to Kieran Mullin Ltd: including marketing and IT, staff development; health and safety advice; equality and diversity and recruitment.
b / Our market size and potential: where our market is, who are our customers, what are their needs and is the market growing or getting smaller?
All courses are completed in-house and with our main employer placement partner, Kieran Mullin Ltd. We only offer training within our own organisations and work with a range of providers in order to do this. These include:
·  Kieran Mullin Ltd. salons and personnel (see www.kieranmullin.co.uk)
·  Derby College, Skills House (15-19% management fee)
·  Rathbone for Foundation Learning courses in Derby
·  Southbank Training for Foundation Learning in Scunthorpe
·  GeTaHead Training for apprenticeship courses in Derby and Scunthorpe (15-20% management fee)
·  Apprentices are recruited annually in Scunthorpe (2) and Derby (14).
KM currently have 11 salons and are increasingly moving into the Nottingham area. This offers an additional market for our services and may require increasing our partners to access funding in this area for Foundation Learning. Partners that have already been approached in relation to this provision are:
·  Access Training, Nottingham
·  Prostart
·  Training Standards 2000 Ltd.
All these organisations require a 10-20% management fee.
C / Major competitors – their prices, strengths and weaknesses
The market for apprentice hairdressers varies but the customer has a continual demand. It is anticipated that due to more young people entering further education recruitment will become increasingly competitive with other local learning providers.
In relation to liaison with schools, we continue to support learners through tasters and work experience. We have taken the decision to not focus on developing our partnerships with schools as we wish to be perceived as an employer provider and a progression route to school provision. Therefore we have focused on and expanded our partners in relation to work-based provision and increased collaboration with other like minded providers.
·  Local colleges and employer providers- North Lindsey (Scunthorpe) / Derby College.
·  Other local/ national learning providers e.g. Positive Approach (SC) Alcrest (Hull) Academy (D), SOS (D)
d / Turnover expected in 2010/11 £ see cash flow analysis
Reasons why we can achieve our expected turnover:
Learner recruits (Foundation Learning and Apprentices) have been profiled for 2011.
To capitalise on our potential income generation we have undertaken the following initiatives:
1.  undertaking projects and accessing additional funding trough LSIS. This has also improved our collaborative working.
2.  maximising the learner potential by offering them additional courses to help individual learners access additional skills through other add on courses such as barbering and AA.
3.  for some learners higher qualifications are not appropriate due to their existing level of Key Skills (numeracy and literacy). However, they have been encouraged to undertake additional courses to upskill themselves in preparation for an advanced course.
4.  increased our Foundation Learner/ pre-apprentice recruits
5.  develop our Nottingham Provision.
e / Has our product or service been market tested? Yes No
Our main customer is the Kieran Mullin (KM) salon hairdressing group who regularly require intake of learners. KM Training is an employer provider working with the KM salon group which consists of eleven salons with over 100 personnel. KMT are the sole provider of training and co-ordinate with other partners such as Clynol, a hairdressing manufacturer, to provide updates to all staff including learners. We have a successful record of providing training confirmed by ALI Inspection Grade 2 results (Nov 04) and Ofsted Grade 2 (2007/8) continuous good recorded feedback from City & Guilds, our Awarding Body, External Verification visits.
f / Marketing and sales methods we plan to use including the costs involved:
Marketing / Sales Method / Cost approx
On line- recruitment such as Gumtree / £50
Special Promotions (e.g. Bridal Show- annual) / £600
Leaflets and Marketing (Vista Print) / £1000
Telephone
KM Website updates/ photographs / £600
£1000
g / Buying
Our major suppliers
·  Kieran Mullin Ltd. (products, co-ordinated work activities)
·  Pompadours hairdressing suppliers
·  HABIA- Hairdressing and Beauty Industry Sector Skills Council
·  Viking Stationary
·  City and Guilds, London- Awarding Body
·  Heinmann Books
·  Vistaprint- stationary
·  Clynol- hairdressing manufacturer
·  L’Oreal- hairdressing manufacturer
·  Educational Consortium, educational resources
·  ATT on-line hairdressing –e-learning package
·  For Skills, 0n-line Initial Assessment- online skills for life resources.
Alternative awarding bodies? Vocational Awards International VAI /VCTC
Advantages of buying from the suppliers shown above?
All suppliers are reliable. City & Guilds is a more expensive awarding body than VAI. VAI is now working closely with HABIA and is increasingly known as an awarding body or recognised industrially as C&G for hairdressing, our core activity. They are currently updating their assessment systems which currently would require a lot of staff retraining. However, in 2011 a meeting was held with Ursula Conway, a representative of VTCT which is under new leadership. Although costs were still cheaper and the log books etc have been significantly upgraded, VCTC have only got E4 accessible for on-line tests and E3 completed manually will take up a considerable time from the assessor/ trainers.
h / Production or operation
Our methods of production or operation are described in more detail in our Quality Assurance Strategy. These included policies, procedures and evaluation in relation to management of the business, the learner journey and staffing. The annual self-assessment process and development plan is also included. Further information about KMT systems are laid out in the quality assurance systems file held at Head Office

The range of learning opportunities currently offered are:-

·  Apprenticeships (apprenticeships and advanced) in Hairdressing, Barbering and Customer Service

·  National Vocational Qualifications in Hairdressing, Barbering and Customer Service

·  Key Skills/ Functional Skills at levels 1 and 2.

·  Learning and Development Awards (includes Assessor Awards and training awards) and updates LLUK/TAQA.

·  Basic skills support converged with key skills in order to promote the achievement of key skills within apprenticeship frameworks and from 2012 will be replaced by Functional Skills.

·  CPD opportunities for KMT staff and employer KM staff

Where appropriate some learners (and staff) have taken additional accredited qualifications such as ICT, Barbering and Emergency First Aid, not required by their frameworks. In this way learners are encouraged to achieve their full potential.

KM Training works closely with the employer to ensure that learners are working in a healthy and safe environment. Health and safety policies are updated and regularly reviewed and audited by a joint working party of company representatives.

For recruitment and selection of learners we work alongside the employer and other partners such as Connexions and schools, to ensure we are continuously widening participation and including all potential candidates.

Equality and Diversity issues have also been high on the agenda for joint development between KMT and KM. Initiatives hare continuously introduced to increase awareness and monitoring of equal opportunities in the workplace and the impact of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. Numbers of males which were previously under-represented have increased, although still in a minority. KMT have changed our recruitment and selection material/ images to reflect these changes. This trend has continued to improve. Learners on FL courses are able to access additional learner support (ALS-Dyslexia support-counseling) and additionally learners now receive specialist basic skills support where identified on all courses as appropriate.

Summary of Needs Analysis

Employer and Skill Requirements

·  Qualified salon staff to industry standards in Barbering and Hairdressing

·  Work-based assessors on site

·  Mentors available for learners

·  Information Technology skilled personnel.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is an optional part of the Apprenticeship framework in hairdressing. Learners and salon staff will be supported and continue to be offered the chance to develop their skills through the rapid and incremental uptake of technology used in the salons. ICT has been identified as a skill that employers value. KM Training anticipates that ICT will also become increasingly valued within the hairdressing industry. To this end, learners have access to ICT facilities in their training centres (KM- Derby, KM- Scunthorpe, Ashby Link- Scunthorpe) to produce their portfolio work. Initial assessment is also an ICT based system but learners do have the option to complete a paper-based version. Following successful bids for Grants, including LIG and LSIS, KMT have been able to encourage the development of an e-learning culture at Kieran Mullin e.g. all salons are now equipped with broadband, have access to email, can access vocational resources on-line, can take on-line assessments for vocational and key skills assessments and can use the KM client data base developed for KM by KMT.

Demographics

KM Training operates in both Derby, Nottingham and Humberside regions. With the changes in the sizes of contracting following the creation of the SFA, KMT are now sub-contractors to a range of partners.

Barriers to learning

·  Social/ Personal- Many learners experience social and personal difficulties that prevent attendance and therefore learning. KM Training works with Connexions Personal Advisors and provider partner staff to support young people in these circumstances to help them overcome these barriers. However, we recognise that some of these are outside of our remit as work-based learning providers.

·  Educational- KM Training have in place a basic skills tutor to help learners overcome barriers to literacy or numeracy needs identified from initial assessment as appropriate.

Opportunities and Threats to KM Training Provision

·  Opening/Closure/ location change of salons (internal/ external –ASDA-).

·  Recruitment older learners which reduces income as opposed to the 16-18 guarantee group.

All learners are considered on merit. KM Training and Kieran Mullin, the employer, value mature learner’s contribution to the workforce and would wish to consider widening participation in this occupational sector, which has traditionally been limited for older learners. KM Training regularly recruit ‘older’ persons for a learning programme per annum in addition to the traditional 16-18 age group. However, mature learners often require flexible working hours to suit their personal circumstances and often are not able to commit to a full time programme of work leaving insufficient time to develop the vocational skills required to develop competency in the hairdressing sector. They also attract less funding which impacts on the turnover of KMT. Thus learning programmes need also to be individual and flexible consisting of either NVQ units of study, NVQ 2 in hairdressing or Customer Service or the full Apprenticeship framework depending on their circumstances.

Planned Provision

GeTaHead Training

See KMT Learner analysis profile

Derby Employer Link

See Funding Agreement/ KMT learner analysis profile

Rathbone

See KMT Learner analysis profile

Southbank Training

See KMT Learner analysis profile

Development of the Curriculum

·  The NVQ level 1 in hairdressing and barbering has successfully been re-introduced to the learning provision of KM Training and is being offered as offered as part of the FL programme in Derby.

·  Functional Skills are due to replace Key Skills as part of the apprenticeship framework in March 2012. Staff training has already taken place.

·  Citizenship activities have already been developed for use within the learners‘ programmes at KMT. The main ones been promoted are the recycling game which support awareness in the salon and the election assignment which increases knowledge of basic politics for learners who are often reluctant and unconfident in voting.

·  Learners, as part of the salon activities, regularly take part in fund raising for charity in National events as a local level such as Red Nose Day, The Pink Campaign for Breast Cancer and Children in Need amongst others.

·  Customer Service is a programme designed for Receptionists working within in the salon group as appropriate.

·  With the increase in barbering skills required in relation to creating patterns, in-house staff development has been offered to staff in order to increase capacity in this area. This is in addition to the colouring CPD development offered annually.