2008 launch planned for National Skills Academy for Materials, Production & Supply

The National Skills Academy for Materials, Production & Supply is being established to facilitate access to industry-specific, customized and quality-assured training in manufacturing sectors including print, building products, glass, coatings and extractive and mineral processing. 

Crucially, the National Skills Academy is led by employers sharing a common purpose in raising the skills levels of individuals within their industries to ensure that companies in the sector remain competitive in an increasingly globalize marketplace. Currently in the business planning phase, the National Skills Academy for Materials, Production & Supply is scheduled for launch in October 2008. The development and strategic direction of the National Skills Academy is being led by a Council of Governors, comprising employers and trade unions and supported by Proskills, the Sector Skills Council.

The Skills Academy is working with employers and training providers to establish a cohesive approach to training, which addresses specific training needs and is centered on innovative and progressive workplace delivery.

Project director Ray Snowdon explained that more than 90 percent of the companies in the footprint sectors are SMEs. ‘Collectively the age profile of the workforce is increasing, with a high proportion of skilled operatives approaching retirement. This, together with the across-the-board impact of technology, means a constant stream of high-caliber recruits and lifelong upskilling are essential if our industries are to remain competitive.

‘The current system does not fully address the needs of industry. A new kind of delivery vehicle is required to take UK process and manufacturing forward; one whose offer is defined and designed by its “users” in collaboration with the best-in-class training providers the sector has to offer  to ensure a quality-assured, customized and deliverable offering. That vehicle is the National Skills Academy. 

‘Discussions with employers across the sector have underlined the urgency for something extraordinary that will take employers to the next level, enabling them to secure and sustain their position in a strong and highly competitive global market. It is essential that any new model breaks down the barriers that have thus far hindered the uptake of training. The Skills Academy will do just that and it will succeed due to its very simplicity and accessibility. 

‘In the course of dialogue in recent weeks with both employers and training providers, I’ve experienced genuine enthusiasm for sharing best practice across the sectors: technology-related skills, for example, are common throughout and the challenges facing SMEs are broadly the same, whatever their business. It is estimated that skills gaps cost 165,000 for a typical 50-employee business every year.’

The National Skills Academy for Materials, Production & Supply will provide employers with support and tools to enable them to identify the training and skills needs of their business and then provide access to a range of best-in-class providers. The Skills Academy aims to build upon and extend the existing quality provision, improve access to it and identify the gaps in that provision.

The National Skills Academy Network will eventually include a Skills Academy for each major sector of the economy. The initiative is in tune with a review of skills in the UK conducted by Lord Leitch, which reported in 2006, revealing that five million adults in the UK have no qualifications at all.  

The Council of Governors of the National Skills Academy for Materials, Production & Supply is chaired by Catherine Hearn, chief operating officer of Polestar. ‘The Leitch Review has been a real clarion call,’ she said. ‘The UK is one of the largest economies in the world but its prosperity has been constrained by an under invested skills base. 

‘The National Skills Academy initiative has been designed to enable employers to take the lead in specifying precisely how, when and where they would like skills training delivered, secure in the knowledge that it is quality-assured. The implementation model is extremely flexible, accommodating the training needs of companies in the footprint sectors, however large or small. And with a range of sponsorship opportunities available, the level of commitment can also be tailored.’