Business partnership leads to national award nomination

The University of Wolverhampton and ZF Lemforder UK have been nominated in the Adult Learners Week Regional Awards for 2015.

The awards took place on Monday, 15 June at 8 Northumberland Avenue in Central London with the University and ZF Lemforder UK Ltd up for nomination for the Employer award.

Over 100 nominations were entered for the Employer award with the partnering organisations successfully having made it to the final three.

Head of Work-based Learning at the University of Wolverhampton, Dr Alison Felce said: “Our partnership with ZF Lemforder UK Ltd has enabled us to open so many windows of opportunities for keen and driven young people who want to break into industry and gain valuable knowledge and experience as well as for those more established personnel within the company.

“The development of this venture has enabled us to expand our horizons and work to achieve our targets with a committed team of individuals so to say that we were delighted to have been shortlisted for this award would be an understatement.

‌“This nomination is recognition of all that we have accomplished through our work with ZF Lemforder; in a very short space of time we have witnessed a transformation in the organisational culture and the achievements in workforce development, employee empowerment and improved organisational performance, all of which have been made possible through our partnership work.

“The team at the Centre for Lifelong Learning are very much looking forward to a bright future with many big things to come our way through our work with ZF Lemforder and I couldn’t be prouder of our achievements to date.”

The aim of the partnership is to develop flexible, step-on step-off progression routes for all employees.

The programme includes all current and future employees in all areas of the organisation. It allows school leavers to enter the business on an apprenticeship and to progress through Advanced Apprenticeships into Higher Level Apprenticeships and Honours Degrees with opportunities to progress further through Leadership and Management Development into senior roles within the organisation.

Managing Director of ZF Lemforder UK Ltd, Terry Somerfield said: “We are incredibly proud to have been able to work with the University of Wolverhampton to develop a partnership for our employees, which has turned out to be hugely successful.

“This was an important cause for both organisations to work for because we both want our employees to succeed and develop.

“We have come a long way since partnering with the university and have successfully implemented plans and strategies to support future generations of industry experts.

 “This award and nomination means a lot because it signifies that we have done just that. We’re very much looking forward to seeing what the future holds.” 

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