Your contact in your region
Mike Lynham
Tel: 01925 515200
Mobile: 07795 505350
Email: [email protected]

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There are two oil refineries in Wales, one in Pembroke, the other in Milford Haven. There is also an oil storage and jetty facility in operation at the site of a de-commissioned refinery in Waterston.

A new Liquified Natural Gas storage facility is currently under construction at the same site in Waterston. Wales also has a plastic product manufacture cluster feeding into its car and electronics clusters and several small chemicals manufacturing sites spread along the M4 strip from Pembroke to the Bristol Channel.

See also LMI

Higher Education Institutions in Wales have combined to develop the flagship GO Wales business support programme which provides a comprehensive package of services for businesses in Wales enabling them to save time and money by utilising graduate skills.  Graduate Opportunities Wales is managed by the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales and is sponsored by the Welsh Assembly Government.   For further information click here

Skills Trends
Each of the Cogent industries has its own specific skills issues. However, they face common issues including improving their attractiveness to young people, ageing workforces coupled with difficulties in recruiting highly skilled managers, engineers and technicians. They also require high levels of standards-based training to meet the needs of regulation and of operating in challenging environments.

In addition to the new LNG plant, it is envisaged that there will be two new power stations built in the area which will cause a drain to the existing workforce as they employ similar skills in both constructions and operation.

Cogent Activities
Cogent works with local employees and a range of other key stakeholders including ELWa, the Welsh Assembly and the DTI to identify and address workforce development requirements in the region.

One refinery in Pembroke has had its first intake of twelve process modern apprentices using the Cogent MA framework. This marks the first of several intakes of process MAs that seeks to fill the skills gap in this particular discipline.

Cogent works very closely with the South Wales Oil Industry Learning group (SWOIL). Centered upon the petroleum refining and storage industries in Pembrokeshire, SWOIL focuses on the skills development needs of the refineries and their locally-based contractors. Its activities include the establishment of a bursary scheme in conjunction with Pembrokeshire College in order to train school and college leavers in a range of engineering subjects.