A Peterlee training company is helping one of the UK’s largest contract wine bottlers to fully utilise its share of the apprenticeship levy.

GEM Training is the long-term partner of County Durham’s Greencroft Bottling Company and is delivering a number of training programmes and apprenticeships across the business.

This includes helping young apprentices develop through bespoke training in areas including warehousing, production, team leading, customer service, learning and development and administration.

Alongside the apprenticeship support being delivered, which ties in with the funding available through the Greencroft Bottling’s contribution to the Apprenticeship Levy, GEM has also upskilled HR Manager Stephanie Hodgson and training co-ordinator Wendy Hopps who completed a Highfield-Level 3 award in delivering training to help them gain the skills needed to better deliver training to colleagues.

Stephanie said: “Our partnership with GEM Training is an integral part of our talent attraction and personal development programmes, which are key elements of the company’s strategy to achieve our ambitious plans for growth over the coming years.

“The partnership is helping the group utilise our share of the Apprenticeship Levy and means we are not only able to continue to recruit and train talented and enthusiastic individuals but can also offer existing personnel the opportunity to continuously progress and add to their skillset.

“We wanted our training to be more co-ordinated and better aligned with the company’s overall needs, so myself and Wendy have completed this qualification to help us better deliver a tailored programme of training and development to staff in all areas of the business.”

Kelly Lee from GEM Training said: “Our partnership with Greencroft Bottling means we’ve become an extension of its training and development team and are playing a key role in the company’s rapid expansion.

“Alongside our support we are also working with the team so they can actively contribute to the delivery model with a long-term target of becoming a self-sufficient apprenticeship employer provider.”