Improved access to training via new Manufacturing Skills Alliance

Improved access to training via new Manufacturing Skills Alliance

Proskills has joined forces with four other related Sector Skills Councils (SSCs), Cogent, Improve, Semta and Skillsfast-UK, to form the Manufacturing Skills Alliance (MSA). The objective of the Alliance is to find common ground across the five manufacturing-related SSCs to unify and simplify the processes in which manufacturing employers can address skills shortages, access the right training support, and create opportunities for employers in their respective sectors to improve productivity and profitability through skills, allowing them to compete in the global economy.

The intention of the Alliance is to draw on the collaborative efforts of the five SSCs to develop a common, coherent approach that concentrates on the needs of manufacturing through the following distinct strands of activity; skills brokerage, qualifications, labour market intelligence for providers and employers, and support through the recession. Implementation of the MSA plan is being spearheaded by Proskills UK.
 
For employers in the print and paper industries, this will mean a better understanding of what support is available through a coherent set of programmes that will improve transferabilty for individuals across the industry.
 
Terry Watts, chief executive of Proskills UK, said: "Having access to the right provision and, where appropriate, funding, has been the number one demand from our employers to drive competitiveness and productivity in the process and manufacturing sector. The MSA gives manufacturing a greater voice and will enable employers to exercise increased leverage to benefit the whole of the manufacturing sector. We at Proskills UK see the work of the MSA as critical to influencing Government at all levels, which tends to see manufacturing as a homogeneous sector."
 
The MSA has already started a number of collaborative projects. These include productivity and competitiveness programmes which provide training in lean manufacturing, and the implementation of business improvement techniques.

www.proskills.co.uk