Punch Taverns licensees around the UK are benefiting from the relaunch of the company’s industry leading training programme.
The Punch Progress package has been thoroughly reviewed, rebranded and remarketed over the past few months, to provide some of the sector’s best induction training and continuing professional development.
A key aim for the relaunch is to sell the vital importance of training in an industry that attracts a wide range of people with different skills, knowledge and experience. High business failure rates across the sector are often linked to the way new licensees underestimate the expertise they will need to run a successful pub in today’s market.
The relaunch is also promoting the company’s wider training offer. During the project stage, research carried out amongst Punch partners found that 90% of partners believe that on-going training for themselves and their staff is important to their pub business, with 85% directly attributing enhanced business performance to training.
With the programme rebranded as ‘Punch Progress – Your training partner’, the company is sending a clear message about the high quality ‘own-brand’ training it provides. The package offers newcomers the skills they need to set up a profitable and growing business, at the same time as providing existing licensee partners with tailored ongoing support.
The new training offer is clearly signposted, flexible, modular and, in a first for the industry, most of it is free. Grouped into four pathways, it has plenty to offer to all Punch Taverns partners – from new starters to multiple operators.
Punch Taverns can also provide training toolkits for use with staff and it is promoting the new BIIAB Level 2 Apprenticeship in Licensed Hospitality with a £1,500 award for every new apprentice in the 16-24-year age group.
Human Resources Director, Jackie Burn, said: “The relaunch represents a major commitment of time and resources for Punch Taverns. We developed the project because we had a strong message to send, as these days training isn’t just a forced one-off-activity for new licensees or a last resort for businesses in trouble – it’s essential to business success.
“By offering the right high-quality training, the lion’s share of it free, we are investing in the future of our licensees’ businesses, at the same time as strengthening our own. We see the Punch Progress programme as an innovative best practice model for the whole pub sector.”