Nine Strategic skills projects for industry

This programme of work is designed to meet the immediate and medium term skills needs of employers. Through the SSA employers have told us that they have real skills shortages in:

• innovation and business improvement techniques;
• change and project management;
• health and safety;
• management and leadership.

 
The SSA has also confirmed that with an ageing workforce demand for new recruits during the next ten years will be high, and employers will need to look beyond the traditional pool of candidates to find the talented people they need.

1. Cogent Career Pathways: Cogent is developing a one-stop-shop web based careers information advice and guidance centre which will have information on career progression, jobs and training. We have defined the career pathways and key roles, as well as the skills standard for each of the roles. We will identify the provision to achieve the standards as well as the providers capable of delivering this training.
2. Cogent Apprentices: we are developing an apprenticeship framework to meet the needs of the operating companies in our sector, with the flexibility to meet the specific needs of individual industries. It will address the unique process operations and process management in our high hazard industries and so be differentiated from other available frameworks. We will develop appropriate regional and industry approaches to increase the supply future technicians to our industries.
3. Upskill: this focuses on addressing the skills gaps identified through the SSA. Through the careers pathways project, we will develop the skills standard for the key roles. Upskill will then provide the mechanism to take individuals from their current skill level to the industry standard, via a modular approach. This will require the accreditation of existing skills and then the modular accreditation of new skills as they arise. A new platform will be developed to enable progression and CPD.
4. Competence Assurance: it is clear that companies manage competence in a variety of ways with varying degrees of success. We are developing a  universal competence assurance framework which will enable companies to assess their management of risk, benchmark competence standards and promote best practice.
5. Passports: the skill base of the contractor workforce was identified as a concern through the SSA. We will introduce contractor passport schemes for the industries within the sector as required. We will focus initially on nuclear and downstream where a particular need has been expressed. We will build on what already exists by developing industry specific material such as Nuclear Site Induction. This programme will share the Upskill Platform.
6. Sector Qualification Strategy (SQS): we are developing an SQS which will identify the education and training provision, qualifications and National Occupational Standards (NOS) that are valued by our industry. The SQS will also identify gaps in provision where they exist and provision that is in place but that does not meet industry need. This will form the basis of an operational plan to revise provision so that it meets industry needs.
7. Research Strategy: We will develop a research strategy and plan which supports our project activity and complements our existing intelligence. We will provide the essential intelligence to influence the government agenda and industry investment in skills.
8. Employer Engagement and Membership: We will manage strategic and regional employer engagement through our advisory councils, cluster organisations and employer networks. We will launch our membership scheme to employers across the footprint.
9. Stakeholder Engagement: We will agree with stakeholders their role in the delivery of our strategic skills projects, including establishing funding. We will develop National and Regional Action plans to deliver our strategy to the regions.

For more information on any of these projects please contact Kate Hutchins