Landscape Juice

Launch of National Highways Sector training scheme

Next week sees the launch of the National Highways Sector Scheme, NHSS30 – ‘The Quality Management of the Installation, Maintenance and Repair of Modular Paving’.

The new scheme is aimed at improving the installed quality of all types of modular paving including blocks, pavers, setts, kerbs and slabs in concrete, clay or natural stone in both rigid and flexible laying methods.

It is hoped the creation of an industry benchmark will ensure project processes are planned, use properly trained and competent installers, and focuses on continuous improvement, quality of installation and reduced ongoing costs for both the client and supplier.

The Garden Centre Group launch apprenticeships

Apprenticeships have had a bad press recently. Last December the Minister for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning, John Hayes, announced a quality review, while in January the heads of the Skills Funding Agency and the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) took the media by surprise by announcing their resignations on the same day, writes Helen Gazeley.

January also saw a report of the failed football-coach training-scheme that disappointed hundreds of youngsters, and it’s been revealed that some schemes only last twelve weeks and carry no guarantee of employment at the end. Political commentator Polly Toynbee has been scathing, and John Hayes agreed that “as we increase the quantity of apprenticeships there will be a tension with quality”. 

It must be aggravating for the Garden Centre Group (GCG) that this has been the background against which they’ve announced the launch of their own apprenticeship scheme.