Jessica Pennington

Said the following about Quattro Occupational Training Academy:

“QOTA experienced a period of change during a critical transitional period in rail training. With significant investment the team has gone from strength to strength and is now rated as “Gold”, previously “Outstanding” by NSAR and have sailed through their most recent audits. The accrediting body has even stated recently that there are only 10 training facilities nationwide that have been awarded this level of quality, and QOTA is now one of them.

Taking an entire training facility from one end of the scale to the other in such a short amount of time takes tremendous effort by an entire team. Led by, a then, newly appointed Dominic Harris, changes were made to transform the training academy to a more successful and better rated organisation. Changes that were made were to the hierarchy and structure of the training facility to stream line the process and increase efficiency. New staff were recruited to ensure that only quality trainers were delivering the courses and that they had the full support of a dedicated administrative team. Increasing the staff numbers also helped QOTA to respond more effectively to the demand for the variety of courses offered; enabling customers to get on the course they want.

Other changes that were made for QOTA to reach the high standard that its at now the top is the focus on quality. QOTA are ensuring that all of the trainers/assessors achieve a teaching qualification of NVQ Level 4 in Learning & Development to make sure the trainees get the best training possible. But even that isn’t enough for the QOTA team, they want to make sure that they continue to stay at this top level and continue to improve the experience given to their trainees and customers so they aim to increase the qualifications of their training and assessors to achieve Level 5 NVQ DTTLS, resulting in Qualified Teacher and Learning Skills.

Some other developments made by the new QOTA team include attention to the equality and diversity of the facility, spread sheets and graphs are now made based on ethnicity, gender and age to ensure that everything is fair, both on the company and trainee side. QOTA are also considering the possibility for single sex based training, if it would be beneficial or preferred to mixed training courses to encourage women to complete their training as well as ensuring that no discrimination is made to men at the same time.

One of the most crucial and beneficial changes that the new QOTA team have implemented to transform the training facility into a top rated one is to ask for and listen to customer feedback. The team has constantly positive reviews from students have attended the courses provided by QOTA saying that the trainers give “good and clear advice”, that the “quality of the training is second to none” as well as receiving “plenty of time on the machines to get familiar with it” and that the training is “very practical and hands on” which is the key to providing well trained operators who feel confident to take what they have learnt on the course onto jobs on track.

The entire QOTA team have put in a tremendous amount of work and effort to significantly improve the training facility, including the staff, the way the courses are delivered and the relationships with customers and trainees. This has resulted in an increase in new and repeat business from outside sources as well as improved results internally. QOTA continue to be committed to keep moving forwards in their progression and to continually offer a high level of training as well as making sure that the training is as enjoyable as possible, making sure to cater to all.“