Training company survives COVID-19 with pre-planned technology upgrade

A technology upgrade that took place just weeks before COVID-19 has helped a Midlands-based training company to service all its contracts throughout the pandemic.

PTP Training, which trades as Performance Through People, arranges hundreds of apprenticeship contracts for people at employers across the region.

The company was awarded £68,000 of match funding from the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership’s (LEP) Growth Fund at the end of 2019 which it then used for a £136,000 planned upgrade in its IT infrastructure.

Rob Colbourne, managing director of PTP Training, said: “Our forward planning on technology, helped securing funds from the Black Country LEP’s Growth Fund, has proved invaluable during last few months.

“This meant we were able to purchase new laptops, pcs, software and cloud security for more than 100 of our staff at the beginning of the year, and this was in place just weeks before the pandemic emerged.

“This investment has proved so important as if we hadn’t done this we would not have been able to cope with the near-100% homeworking that we had to switch to during the pandemic, and that would have left many of our apprentices stranded.

“We not only strengthened our IT infrastructure, but also enabled our staff to easily work remotely, delivering remote training sessions and maintaining high levels of service and accessibility for all our apprentices and employers.”

Colbourne added: “We are very grateful to the Black Country LEP for the funding that helped us to do this.

“While COVID-19 has been a horrible thing for everyone to deal with, the fact that we had carefully planned the future of our technology meant we had the infrastructure to adapt, survive and thrive throughout the pandemic.”

Tom Westley, chair of the Black Country LEP, said: “This is a great example of how our Growth Fund has helped businesses in the region to plan for the future.”