Midlands Enterprise Awards 2017

6 SME NEWS / Midlands Enterprise Awards 2017 , Open College NetworkWest Midlands is a national Awarding Organisation, regulated by Ofqual, QualificationsWales and the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA), to develop and award nationally recognised qualifications. We invited LeeMoore, Director of Business Development, to talk us through how the company works to provide the very highest standard of service to its clients. Best Education Access NPO 2017 - West Midlands & Excellence Award for Customer Service Established in 2005, Open College Network West Midlands provide a range of products and services that offer a route into high quality learning and skills development that help to increase learners’ employability and confidence that fit with today’s industry needs. Lee discusses the firm’s service offering in more detail and highlights how it works to ensure that students always receive the solutions they need to succeed. “Here at Open College Network West Midlands, we work in partnership with employers, training providers, colleges, universities, schools and voluntary and community organisations to offer vocational credit-based qualifications, Access to Higher Education Diplomas and quality assured Customised Accreditation that enables learners gain employment or to progress into further learning and Higher Education. Alongside this, we also Quality Endorse organisations internal training and skills delivery. “To ensure that everyone who learns with us gains the life skills they need, we have a powerful and passionate mission to recognise achievement and support learning transforming the lives of individuals and communities. This is achieved by being the best we can be and by ensuring our values of integrity, clarity, collaboration, aspiration, excellence, innovation and inclusion are at the heart of everything we do and are deeply instilled to our dedicated workforce.” Operating in the highly competitive education sector, the organisation has to work hard to set itself apart from its competitors, a challenge which it takes incredibly seriously, as Lee is keen to emphasise. “Aside from our long and proud history of being part of the ‘Open Colleges’ network, which was the basis of credit based learning in the UK, we stand out as a truly customer focused national awarding organisation that can offer a genuinely local and personalised service. Not only this, but as a charitable and not for profit organisation that believes in social inclusion and widening participation within education, we continually reinvest into the business and are able to offer outstanding value for money. All of our MID17012 customers are important to us, large and small, and all of our approved centres are allocated a dedicated Business Development Manager and Quality Assurer to provide ongoing account management, curriculum support and advice, which is over and above the day to day excellent customer service support provided to all customers by our Business Support team. “Alongside this, our approach to partnerships and collaborative working combined with our passion for providing a flexible, responsive and customer focused service is very much underpinned by the culture of the organisation – and this is led right from the top. We have a ‘can do’ culture which runs right through the company and investing in staff development is always a key priority. We are proud to be an Investors in People organisation and also a Living Wage employer, so even those staff just starting out on the bottom rung are guaranteed the very best minimum standards.” As well as working to stand out from other businesses in the market, the network also has to ensure that it offers the most