The Southern, South East
and Eastern England regional team covers the counties of Devon and Cornwall,
Somerset, Dorset, West of England, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Berkshire,
Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex, Greater London, Kent, Essex,
Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk.
Profile
The Southern region has significant clusters of the Cogent industries ranging
from household name multinationals to small, medium and micro companies.
There are clusters of chemical companies in the region notably in the Southampton, Avonmouth and Cambridgeshire areas. As well as a number of major manufacturing Pharmaceutical
sites and research centers in Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, Essex, Oxfordshire and Cambridgshire.
The petroleum
industry in the region is represented by
three oil refineries including at Coryton and Harwich with the
largest UK
refinery and a significant petrochemical complex at Fawley. Because of
the high density of population in the East and South East there are a large number
of storage and distribution
terminals such as BOSL at Avonmouth, HOSL
at Buncesfield, Hambel, West London and Grays in Essex to name a few. The region has six nuclear power stations of which
Sizewell B is the most modern in the UK and more recently in Jan 2007 two started decommissioning under the NDA. There are also two Ministry of Defence
sites at Aldermastern and Devonport Dockyard nuclear sites, and the UKAEA
Fusion research site at Culham, The East of England is a significant centre for
the oil and gas industry with approximately 500 oil and gas-related companies
in the Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft areas. In
addition, British Sugar plans to produce bioethanol at its plant in
Wissington.
The southern and eastern regions have the greatest concentration of polymer
companies in the UK
with approximately 2900 companies located in the area. Within this sector there are a number of high
profile Composite Companies linked to wind turbine blade, marine, F1 motor
sport as well as aerospace component manufacture and construction.
See also: LMI
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. Nuclear companies responsible for decommissioning
also face the challenge of retaining and recruiting appropriate staff to
oversee the decommissioning and clean-up process through to completion.
Cogent Activities
Cogent works with local employers and a range of other key stakeholders such as
Regional Development Agencies ( recently
awarded a Training Pool Contract with SEEDA to improve the skills in the
composite sector and a research contract
by EEDA to investigate the needs of the composite industry in the East of
England), Local Learning and
Skills Councils,and the DTI to identify and address workforce development
requirements in the region. Cogent is also very active both with employer
forums and stakeholder forums and with schools and colleges to attract young
people to the sector. In the East of England for example, Cogent is involved
with the Skills for Energy partnership and is currently working on a project with three
other Sector Skills Councils and regional partners to support employers in the
energy sector to address their skills and training issues through the promotion of apprenticeships, workforce
competence and foundation degrees. Other activities include the High
Energy Schools Challenge radio quiz which
was introduced to the East of England by Cogent to promote careers in oil and
gas and nuclear industries and in the energy sector generally.
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