Powell Dobson – an award winning Welsh architectural practice – plans to be in pole position to take advantage of opportunities when the economy upturns by ensuring its staff get up to the minute training in a range of relevant skills.
The company, which has offices in Cardiff, Swansea and London, is one of the latest businesses to benefit from the Welsh Assembly Government’s ProAct initiative designed to help businesses retain skilled staff and fund training to upskill staff.
Joint Managing Director Tim Percival said the ProAct funding would be an enormous help and give them a competitive edge when there was an improvement in the economy.
“In a recession the training programme tends to be one of the first casualties but thanks to support through ProAct we now have 68 personnel engaged on a training programme that will hone and broaden their skills in a range of areas from 3D computer graphics skills, through to management and interpersonal skills.
“Building regulations and specifications are constantly evolving so this will also give us an opportunity to ensure staff are updated on all the latest legislation.
“The emphasis in construction is also changing with a strong focus on environmental and sustainable measures, and we are keen to extend our expertise in this area and hope to increase the number of assessors for the environmental BREEAM standards.
“ProAct is going to be an enormous help to us. The investment in training our staff, particularly in the green environmental area, will provide us with a great advantage and put us at the cutting edge when the economy recovers.”
On a visit to Powell Dobson, Lesley Griffiths, Deputy Minister for Science, Innovation and Skills, said it was good to hear at first hand how ProAct was helping companies combat the effects of the recession.
“We know that ProAct has played a significant role in saving thousands of jobs in companies throughout Wales but it’s always good to see at first hand how effective it is. The training programme put in place by Powell Dobson will safeguard existing jobs and ensure the business is in good shape to take advantage of market opportunities as the economy recovers.”
Powell Dobson, one of the largest architectural practices in Wales, has been forced to reduce staff numbers over the past eighteen months and introduced a four-day week in the short term to prevent further redundancies and retain its existing staff.
