Perfect Partners
This week, BS Stainless Ltd will attend a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) launch meeting. It will mark the beginning of a two-year project, the specific details of which will soon be revealed on our website - please check back regularly for updates on this exciting project. To understand the aims of the project, here we present our guide to the KTP.
The KTP scheme was launched in 1975 and was known in its lifetime as Teaching Companies Scheme (TCS). This was replaced in 2003 by KTP and has been managed by the Technology Strategy Board since 2007. A KTP is a relationship between an established company and an academic institution. The institution facilitates transferring technology, knowledge and skills to the partner company by providing university graduates, post-grad researchers and individuals qualified with at least NVQ Level 4 as associates, working in the company on a strategically-important project. The academic institution, also known as the Knowledge Base Partner, supervises the entire project over the course of 12-36 months. Funded overall by fifteen Government organisations, each partnership is also part-funded by the company partner; there are 800 such partnerships in the UK.
The partnership is a mutually beneficial one. For the associate, they create an opportunity to gain valuable real-life experience managing a project important to a company's growth and development, while providing them with a competitive salary and a fully-funded qualification in professional management. 75% of associates are subsequently offered full-time employment with the host company, which in turn benefits from the partnership by gaining a competitive advantage with the link to academia. Another benefit for the company is that the graduates that can be accessed are of an extremely high calibre and can bring much-needed knowledge and expertise to the strategy of a business, with figures showing that 52% of companies increased the value of their business and 62% increased sales after the successful completion of a KTP. The academic institution itself also benefits from the partnership by, amongst other things, being provided with the potential to develop relevant teaching and research methods and materials, identify new research themes, publish research papers and act as mentors for these postgraduates who are working on company projects.
As a well-established company providing stainless steel wire, Aluzinc, stainless steel strip coil, welding wire and a range of other products to a diverse worldwide client-base, BS Stainless Ltd are proud and excited to be joining the scheme; we look forward with great anticipation to the meeting. Check back for updates and to find out the full details soon; alternatively you could subscribe to our newsletter and have updates sent directly to your email inbox.