Educ8 Ltd

Educ8 Ltd has emerged as a leading provider of quality training to the Health and Social Care sector across Wales. Its services are split between Welsh Government funded provisions and designing commercial training plans for care clients. Its current challenge is to build on its growing reputation for excellence in care through developing long-lasting strategic partnerships with care organisations in order to improve their staff skills and help them offer a high quality level of care services. Educ8 is committed to driving excellence in care through a holistic learning experience and is currently embarking on a project which will allow their training to be delivered through a unique simulated care environment in order for participants to apply theory into practise during the training experience.

Origins

The business was established in 2004 evolving as a subsidiary of CCA Residential Homes Ltd, a large specialist care home with over six residential properties within its portfolio. CCA Residential Homes was established in 1992 specialising in providing care for individuals with learning disabilities/mental health problems who challenged the existing services. In 1996, CCA Residential Homes set up an NVQ Assessment Centre to provide training and support for its existing employees. Following the introduction of the Care Standards Act 2000 and growth in the demand for NVQ training, CCA established a subsidiary, Phoenix Training, to drive forward this new agenda. A subcontract arrangement with a large training organisation was established enabling Phoenix Training to support not only CCA employees but also other individuals within the Care Sector. In 2002, Phoenix Training secured a direct work based learning contract with Education and Learning Wales (now Department for Education and Skills). In March 2004, CCA was sold but Phoenix Training continued to operate until August when the business was rebranded Educ8 Ltd.

Success factors

The quality of Educ8’s staff continues to be crucial to the ongoing success of the business. Educ8 lives by the mantra ‘Gr8 People, Gr8 Business’, their people are energetic, passionate and dynamic and it is imperative that all new recruits fit into this culture of Gr8-ness. Indeed, staff are extremely motivated and all go the extra mile in terms of their day-to-day roles and identifying new opportunities for the business and are always included in celebrating when the company’s performance exceeds expectations. They are encouraged to perform to a high standard and all individual and team achievements are recognised from board managers downwards. Educ8’s commitment to developing Gr8 people was acknowledged in 2011 when the company joined just 1% of UK businesses to achieve Investors in people (IIP) Gold status. In 2010, Educ8 collaborated with 4 other high quality training providers in the development of a skill consortium which allowed it to increase its market share of the WBL industry and work in partnership with other industry leading providers. VSP (Wales) Ltd offers a broad range of work-based learning opportunities and following the 2011 WBL contract allocation, has become a Top Ten WBL provider in Wales. Last year the company invested in the commercial arm to the business, thus opening an entire new market for the Educ8 Group which is helping to safeguard the business should there be any changes to Welsh Government funding contracts in the future. In the same year, Educ8’s obsession with providing quality training was recognised by UK Skills who presented them with the 2010 National Training Award for Wales in recognition of excellence in learning facilitation.

The future?

Educ8’s future plans are (a) for VSP (Wales) Ltd to lead in the transformation of skills and become the best value provider of learning in Wales by July 2012 (b) to develop a sustainable, profitable and high quality commercial Care arm of the business, maximising all revenue streams by July 2012 (c) to become a Times 100 company to work for by 2013.

Sector: Training provider

Established: 2004

Growth: 174.0%