Toyota employees motor to leadership qualifications

Citation

(2013), "Toyota employees motor to leadership qualifications", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 45 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/ICT.03745gaa.007

Toyota employees motor to leadership qualifications

Article Type: Notes and news From: Industrial and Commercial Training, Volume 45, Issue 7

Hundreds of Toyota Manufacturing UK employees have gained nationally accredited leadership qualifications.

The qualifications have already helped hundreds of staff to develop their roles, boosting retention and identifying future leaders in an organization that has more than 3,800 employees.

They have been developed and implemented in partnership with EAL, the specialist awarding organization for industry qualifications, which helped to turn in-house training programs into qualifications and credit framework (QCF) qualifications. This led to two awards – the EAL levels 3 and 4 certificates in team and group leadership in a manufacturing environment.

The qualifications were based around the delivery and assessment program that Toyota already had in place, covering topics such as managing team versatility, problem-solving and leading a team in manufacturing.

Nerys Fowler, Section Manager at Toyota Manufacturing UK’s vehicle-manufacturing plant in Burnaston, Derbyshire, was involved in the development from the beginning and is working towards becoming a qualified internal verifier to ensure future quality. “So far, 220 people have successfully completed or are currently undertaking these qualifications”, she said.

Level 3 is for team members who want to become team leaders, looking after a team of five. Level 4 is for team leaders who want to become group leaders, looking after five teams: “The programs are a prerequisite to promotion at Toyota Manufacturing UK and also offer our team members, team leaders and group leaders the opportunity to gain formal qualifications that recognize their achievements”, Nerys Fowler added.

All Toyota’s team members already go through level 2 qualifications with EAL, so the car manufacturer decided to ensure that its staff continued down the path of academic rigor as they climbed the career ladder.

Nerys Fowler continued: “We have never accredited programs like this before. It was great to find out that the development we were already providing could receive national accreditation. The members are really engaged by the opportunity to receive nationally recognized qualifications. This can only be a good thing for motivation, morale and staff retention. We see it as an important step in our development and the growth of our leaders.”

Elizabeth Bonfield, EAL’s Head of Business Development, said: “When we looked at the team and group-leader programs delivered by Toyota we knew that we could work with the company and turn them into national qualifications as the standards were already exemplary.”

“These are challenging times for manufacturing, but Toyota and other UK manufacturers continue to outperform competitor nations with a much lower cost base. Toyota’s commitment to skills, training and, more importantly, its commitment to its people are key elements in staying competitive. Toyota is an exemplar of providing staff with the skills, knowledge and qualifications needed to enhance the business and be a valuable asset to the UK as well.”