FIESTA is delighted to announce dynamic new partnership with Achieve+Partners

TheFurniture and Interiors Education, Skills and Training Alliance (FIESTA) isdelighted to announce its innovative strategic partnership with newly formedEnd-Point Assessment Organisation, Achieve+Partners.

Achieve+Partners provides End-point Assessmentproducts and services for the furniture, wood and trade supplier industries. Asa niche organisation, it plans to do things differently by putting partnershipsfront and centre of the business. In an industry experiencing huge changes andchallenges, Achieve+Partners’ ethos is to work purposefully with a wide rangeof organisations, bringing the industry closer together. It will use its highlyskilled employees to share their expertise and knowledge whilst at the sametime providing added-value support to all of its apprenticeship partners.

Founder Lisa Williamson, who has committed manydecades to the industry, believes that this unique partnership approach willunite the sector, bringing together professional and trade bodies with employersand training providers and enabling apprentices to achieve their fullpotential.

FIESTA - which was formed to connect and inspire furniture and interiors businesses and provide solutions to address education and training issues in the sector - sees this focus on partnership working as a key way of creating a common purpose. It recognises the importance of a continued dialogue across the sector especially during the current period of economic uncertainty coupled with the many changes taking place across apprenticeship standards.

Chair of FIESTA, Gary Baker stated: “One of ourmain aims is to address the sector’s future skills gaps and the work we aredoing on the development of apprenticeship standards is offering new andexciting possibilities to the workforce. But input from employers throughoutthe process is critical and our partnership with Achieve+Partners will help usto further unite the sector and provide education and training solutions toreally meet the ever-evolving needs of the employers and continue to attractmuch needed talent to the industry.”

The new apprenticeship standards have beenintroduced as part of the Government’s major apprenticeship reforms and focuson a shift from assessing to learning with the aim of putting employers more incontrol. The standards outline the skills, knowledge and behaviours required todeliver a certain job role and also include an End-Point Assessment – a qualitymark that checks that the apprentice has gained what they need through theapprenticeship.

As Lisa Williamson explains: “Mostapprenticeship standards don’t include mandatory qualifications, so employersand training providers can deliver teaching and learning in any way they wishwhich is a step in the right direction but has also led to some confusion. AtAchieve+Partners we are passionate about supporting training providers andemployers through the entire process from implementation of their apprenticeshipsto delivering the End-point Assessment.

We want to strengthen the industry and give thedelivery partners a voice whilst also providing FIESTA with information ofwhat’s happening on the ground to ensure that the continual review andimprovement of standards meets the real needs of apprentices and deliverypartners.”

As part of the strategic partnership betweenthe two organisations, Achieve+Partners is working with FIESTA on the reviewand development of nine level 2 apprenticeship standards and also the creationof a new degree level apprenticeship in domestic furniture design. This strategicapproach continues FIESTA’s work towards driving skills development andoffering attractive and flexible pathways for people of all ages to join andthrive within the industry.