Engineering Magazine's interview with Phillip Jefferies

Phil Jefferies is Director of Sales and Marketing at 20/20 Business Insight and responsible for managing sales, scheduling and the marketing team to provide solutions for clients' requirements. These range from off the shelf accredited courses through to the design, development and delivery of fully bespoke courses.

Steve Welch: Could you tell me a little about your background in the sector?
Phil Jefferies: My background is in the construction industry before entering Further Education as a construction lecturer delivering full time programmes as well as apprenticeships. My career moved into Project and then Programme Management. It was after this that my career saw entry into the Engineering Construction sector when I started as Regional Account Manager for the ECITB. Responsible for companies engaged in Engineering, Design and Procurement and companies in the South of England, I managed a team to oversee the training and development of people engaged in some of the UK's most exciting infrastructure projects. Since 2017, I have been working at 20/20 Business Insight, one of the ECITB's approved providers for Project Controls and Project Leadership.

Steve Welch: Could you provide a brief summary of your organisation and offering to the market?
Phil Jefferies: 20/20 Business Insight is a full-service training and consulting company that develops skills and solutions for world-leading projects and people. Founded in 2003, we are the largest independent provider of project management and project controls training courses in the UK. Accredited by the APM and the ECITB we are able to offer fully recognised Project Management and Project Controls courses and qualifications. For clients' who require something more tailored, we can work with them to analyse requirements, design and deliver a fully bespoke course to suit their individual needs.

Steve Welch: Who in the main are the companies you engage with and in what way?
Phil Jefferies: 20/20 work with many engineering and construction companies working across the energy sector including oil and gas, nuclear and renewables. We also work with clients who operate in chemical, pharmaceutical and food and drink. 20/20 has been working with companies in these sectors for over 20 years providing training and consultancy solutions across project management, project controls and project leadership. We have delivered introductory courses to new entrant into the ECI right up to supporting project professionals becoming Chartered with the Association for Project Management.

Steve Welch: Do you have a project or case study you could provide some details of?
Phil Jefferies: We have been working collaboratively with Costain since 2-18 in support of the Project Controls Resources (PCR) framework awarded by EDF. Costain were initially awarded the contract by EDF in 2018. As part of the framework, Costain were committed to develop and grow EDF's core project controls capabilities and provide specialist support to EDF Energy's Central Technical Organisation to improve project performance and deliver cost efficiencies. We were approached to support this commitment, utilising the ECITB's Certificate in Project Controls as a method to provide a comprehensive development platform for the future Project Control talent within both Costain and EDF. The programme provides a thorough understanding of the knowledge underpinning the project control profession along with the requirement for delegates to explore the theoretical information covered through the course, through a series of assignments to understand the reality of the theory within the delegates projects and wider corporate governance. To date, 20/20 have supported over 50 project control professionals through the programme in support of the EDF Framework.

Steve Welch: What are your reflections on 2021/22?
Phil Jefferies: As clients across the globe started to adapt to new ways of working following the pandemic, we saw a sizeable shift towards virtual classroom delivery. Having experience of delivering virtually prior to 2020, we were able to quickly provide high quality, virtual classroom delivery for all of our courses. This enabled us to continue supporting the industry with all their project management and project controls requirements with no compromise on quality. 2021/22 saw a small shift back to classroom based courses, although a large number of companies have continued with virtual classroom. This has provided larger cohorts promoting higher levels of peer learning and reduced cost for companies by removing the need for travel and accommodation. We were proud to be working in partnership with the ECITB and the industry to continue providing training solutions for new entrants and also upskilling existing project teams.

Steve Welch: What do you see as the key trends in the sector?
Phil Jefferies: As we continue to engage with the sectors that make up the ECI, there is a definite trend in investigating further in project controls as they look to ensure that projects remain on time, within budget and meets its objectives. The trend indicates that companies face challenges in attracting new people into project controls and there is a growing need to develop people who are working in one or all the disciplines. We have seen growth in the Level 3 Project Control Technician Apprenticeship and across the ECITB Project Controls course. Working with the industry and the ECITB we have also developed several courses against the ECITB Technical Training standards to meet the development needs.

Steve Welch: What are your objectives looking ahead to 2023 and beyond?
Phil Jefferies: We will continue to work in partnership with the ECITB and the industry to ensure that the Project Management and Project Controls training needs are met and that we continue to develop new courses, aligned to the ECITB standards to address any future skills gaps. In addition, we are looking to grow the DfE-funded Skills Bootcamps, of which the ECI have been large users of, to deliver critical training interventions. Being funded by the DfE, we have been able to deliver far more training in the critical areas of Project Management and Project Control with significant savings to the industry.

Steve Welch: What are the main challenges facing the sector more generally and for you specifically?
Phil Jefferies: In addition to the Key Trends Section above, for us as an ECITB Approved Training Provider our key challenge is ensuring we remain at the forefront of Project Management and Project Controls training and development. We need companies in the industry to continue to feedback what challenges they face and their future plans to ensure we can put in timely interventions to help address their requirements.

Steve Welch: How would you sum up your message to the market?
Phil Jefferies: There continues to be increased awareness and demand for the development of project teams both in terms of project management and project controls. With constant focus on project performance and ensuring they are delivered on time, within budget and in meeting its objectives, investment in training and development is critical for the industry to deliver. At 20/20, we continue to engage with the ECITB and the industry to understand the immediate and future requirements and to ensure our training offer meets those needs. Working together we can ensure the industry attracts new entrants into their project teams but also in partnership, we upskill the existing workforce to support the successful execution of the industry's projects.

Contact team at 20/20 to see how we can support you and your project teams.