First Group

First Group is the world’s largest public transport operator. It employs 130,000 staff throughout the UK and North America, carrying 2.5 billion passengers and bringing in over £6 billion in revenues every year. First Group is the market leader in safe, reliable, innovative and sustainable transport services.

First Group operates Greyhound UK, passenger and freight services and the Croydon Tramlink Network on behalf of Transport for London.

First Group is passionate about investing in its staff. It wanted to implement qualifications to reduce staff turnover and give its employees potential promotional opportunities.
 
On-demand support was important for First Group to ensure accurate, timely information could be provided to its learners.
The company also needed a set of specific qualifications that were relevant to the daily lives of its staff.
 
First Group has a diverse range of learners throughout the organisation and therefore needed flexible qualification options to suit learners’ lifestyles and commitments.

Pearson Work Based Learning partnered with First Group in 2004 to offer eight different types of qualifications to approximately 45,000 First Group staff.
 
First Group’s employees gained skills qualifications such as literacy and numeracy; BTEC Specialist Qualifications such as CCTV Operations; and BTEC Short Courses, ranging from Levels 1 to 3.
 
Pearson Work Based Learning provided First Group with flexible qualifications that enabled employees to learn parts of the course to fit around their lifestyle and work commitments.

First Group has seen real, measurable results and bottom-line benefits. It has a high achievement rate for its employees, averaging more than 80 per cent - and higher on some courses.
 
First Group’s Life Long Learning Manager, Mat Chapman, commented: “Edexcel’s qualifications act as an incentive for employees, and we’ve noticed that staff morale has increased, leading to an increase in staff motivation. Since the qualifications were introduced we have also noticed that staff are now staying with the organisation for longer.
 
“The level of support we’ve received from Pearson Work Based Learning has been fantastic. We’re very satisfied with our relationship with Pearson and highly recommend other companies use Edexcel’s qualifications in their workplace,” Mat concluded.