Oakman Inns is to be presented with the annual Princess Royal Training Award, receiving the accolade for the second time in the programme’s five-year history.

The City and Guilds Group announced that the pub group will be one of 43 recipients from 39 organisations who will be presented with the award in November.

This is the second time that the independent pub group, which employs over 1,000 people to run its 28 pubs across Southern England and the West Midlands, has been recognised for their training programme.

The Princess Royal Training Awards recognise those UK companies that have created outstanding training and development programmes which have made a direct and provable impact on their employer’s business performance.

Oakman’s CEO, Dermot King said: “Since receiving the Award in 2017 for our pioneering online learning and career development platform, the growth of our business has resulted in our employee numbers doubling. This required us to scale up our programme to meet the changing needs of both our business objectives and those of our team members. As a result, employee turnover has fallen by 16% while internally promoted chef numbers have increased by 34%.”

Oakman Inns’ HR director, Jill Scatchard, said: “Oakmanology 2020 provides the framework and tools to consistently deliver and measure the success of a wide variety of interactive learning courses in a safe and personalised environment. We have introduced mini modules such as the Pizzaiolo Mini Module to support our pizza offer and together with the choice of multiple languages and help for Dyslexic users, our increasingly diverse workforce can shape their careers at their own pace.  In the workplace, their online training is reinforced with ‘on tap’ practical guidance by our team of ‘Training Ninjas’ who are graduates of our unique ‘Train the Trainer’ programme, delivering exceptional skills at site level.”

Originally published in the Foodservice Equipment Journal: https://www.foodserviceequipmentjournal.com/oakman-inns-training-scheme-gets-royal-approval-for-second-time/