Castrol Awards

Citation

(1999), "Castrol Awards", Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, Vol. 51 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilt.1999.01851bab.003

Castrol Awards

Castrol Awards

First Awards of the National Vocational Qualification in Lubricant Plant Operations

Keywords Awards, Castrol, NVQ

Castrol Industrial's lubricants manufacturing plant at Hyde has become the first plant in the country where employees have been awarded the NVQ in Lubricant Plant Operations (see Plate 1). This relatively new qualification was issued by the National Certification Body for NVQs (now the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, QCA) some two years ago, and was introduced on a limited pilot scale in the Wirral area. The operating Centre chosen was Wirral Metropolitan College (both the Stanlow and Hyde plants), Mobil (Birkenhead) and Polartech (Trafford Park, Manchester). All three companies have since made substantial progress, but it was the Hyde plant of Castrol which eventually gained the first awards, have started in April 1998, with over 80 per cent of their operators achieving the Level 2 NVQ some eight months later, and with the remainder expected to qualify by early 1999. Noticeable at the Hyde plant was the absolute commitment of senior management to pursue the NVQ route, as they were convinced of the benefits of having a highly trained and flexible workforce. David Beswick, the Operations Manager, was delighted that the whole workforce responded positively to this training initiative, reflecting the drive of the company to improve quality in all aspects of plant operations.

Plate 1 Ian Boyle, Process Development Coordinator; Alan Molloy, Process Operator; Stan Smith, Wirral Metropolitan College; Andrea Bowen, Human Resources Advisor; David Margaroni, City & Guilds External Verifier

The background to the development of this training qualification was fully described in Vol. 50 No. 1 of this journal.