Business News
Government gives approval for National Skills Academy for Materials, Production & Supply (NSAMPS)
Wednesday 04. March 2009 - The National Skills Academy gets green light to Tackle Skills Shortages Essential to Competitiveness in the print and paper industries.
Proskills, the sector skills council for the print and paper industries industry has received Government approval to establish an employer-led National Skills Academy for Materials, Production & Supply (NSAMPS). The new Academy will facilitate access to industry-specific, customised and quality assured training in the manufacturing sectors including building products, coatings, extractives & mineral processing, furniture, glass, paper and print as well as glazed ceramics.
The announcement was made today, Wednesday 4th March 2009 by Skills Minister Lord Young, and marks the eleventh skills Academy to be established as part of the Governments expanding National Skills Academy network.
“I am delighted to announce the approval of the National Skills Academy for Materials, Production & Supply,” announced Lord Young MP, Minister for Skills at the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS). “In the current economic climate when businesses are struggling, it is especially important for employers to invest in skills and training. The National Skills Academy Network is led by employers and enables them to focus on developing the key skills needed in each industry to help drive it forward.”
The National Skills Academy for Materials, Production and Supply has been created to work with employers and training providers to develop and deliver sustainable, employer-led education, training and skills to address the growing skills gap, and is centred on innovative and progressive workplace delivery.
The Academy will be run as a wholly owned subsidiary of Proskills, the Sector Skills Council for the process and manufacturing industries, which includes the print and paper industries, under the direction of a Council of Governors comprising employers and trade unions.
Commenting on the announcement, Terry Watts, Chief Executive of Proskills said, “We have long shared employers determination to make the National Skills Academy a reality, and we are therefore extremely pleased we can now move ahead from business planning to actual implementation and delivery. Our Academy represents a much-needed centre of excellence for employers in learning, training and education. The key activity of Proskills is to support employers right across the process and manufacturing industries to develop their employees so that they can perform their jobs to world-class standards. This in turn will boost efficiency, productivity and innovation and prepare workforces to take advantage of the upturn in the economy.”
The announcement of the National Skills Academy for Materials, Production & Supply follows the submission last December of a detailed, long term business plan led by Project Director Craig Crowther and steered by an employer-led Council of Governors.
Craig Crowther, who led the Academy during its Business Planning Phase will now assume the role of interim General Manager. “It is vital that the support from the employers for the National Skills Academy for Materials, Production & Supply is now translated into action that delivers the skilled employees needed for these companies to be globally competitive,” said Mr Crowther.
The Structure of the Skills Academy
The National Skills Academy for Materials, Production & Supply will operate via a small co-ordinating centre/Head Office, located at the existing Proskills offices in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. This central administrative office will be supported by a strong network of delivery arms – Employer Learning Centres and Employer Training Clusters. Together with a nationwide network of licensed Academy Training Providers and a core range of products and services, this hub and spoke model will ensure appropriate geographical and sectoral reach across the footprint industries throughout the UK.
The Academy model represents a transformation in the relationship between employers and providers. By aligning employers and providers to develop and enhance provision, employers will benefit from their employees gaining more relevant skills, and learners will benefit from having more applicable, recognisable and transferable skills valued by employers.
Employer Support
Leading employers supporting the National Skills Academy for Materials, Production & Supply include: Ardagh glass, Autowindscreens, Crown Paints, Heidelberg UK, News Printers, Polestar UK, Print Ltd, Safestyle UK, Statex Colour Print and Sonneborn & Rieck.
Employers will be engaged in every aspects of the Skills Academy including articulating the present and future skills needs of the sector, providing facilities and support for the establishment of Employer Learning Centres, supporting the development of products and services, forming the Board to drive the skills academy, and engaging in Regional Training Clusters.
Catherine Hearn, Chief Operating Officer of print Group Polestar, and Chairman of the Skills Academy Board commented, “The sustained effort to secure approval for the Skills Academy demonstrates the commitment of employers to this venture; commitment founded on the necessity for improved access, funding and delivery of training to sectors dominated by small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs). We can now get our teeth into implementation.”
Adding a further industry voice of approval to the launch of the Academy, Bernard Rutter, National Sector Skills Council Co-ordinator at Unite the Union, and Proskills Board member said, “Timing is everything in life, and the National Skills Academy for Materials, Production & Supply is the final piece of the jigsaw to enable employers in the Proskills sector footprint to access learning and skills for their workforces in these challenging times. The pressure is now on for companies to invest in the skills and training of their workforce, and where there is a union presence, work with their Union Learning Representatives to deliver skills and qualifications for the benefit of the company and the individuals.”
A key aim of the National Skills Academy for Materials, Production & Supply is to ensure that every learner and employer will have access to top quality training, regardless of where they are based. This will be achieved in part through a web-based skills academy portal allowing distance leaning and providing access to a wide range of information, products and services.
The Academy will provide employers, large or small, 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 will build upon and extend the existing quality provision, improve access to it and identify the gaps in that provision.
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.