20 May 2009
ONE of the UK’s most senior industrialists, from the world’s third largest chemical company, has urged North East employers to take control of the skills crisis affecting the £67bn process industries.
Tom Crotty, Chief Executive of INEOS Olefins and Polymers, part of the global $48bn chemicals company INEOS, outlined the steps businesses need to take to tackle the problems of a workforce in which 40% of people are aged 45 and over.
Speaking at a recent national skills summit organised by the National Skills Academy Process Industries, he spoke about the issues resulting from a lack of young people coming into the industry to replace those approaching retirement, plus other key skills shortages in the staff and contractor base.
The process
industries, which span the chemicals, polymers and pharmaceutical sectors,
employ 22,000 people across the North East and turnover £12,000 per minute in
the region. Tom Crotty
said: “It is vital that we continue to train our workforce despite the current
economic pressures.
“As employers,
we need to take an active lead in ensuring we manage the skills agenda.
Collectively we have an ageing workforce and a real slowdown of young people
entering the industries, which is already making itself felt, particularly
through the contractor base.”
He was
addressing hundreds of process industry leaders and training providers at the
Skills Academy’s inaugural skills conference in York.
Mr Crotty’s
advice included maintaining skills development and apprenticeship programmes,
over-training apprentice numbers where possible to support smaller companies,
strengthening education links, continuing to invest in innovation, and
investigating all possible sources of funding.
Urging
employers and training providers to work together with the academy, he said:
“Employers will benefit from using industry-specific training providers who
understand what we want and how we want it delivered, and at a new,
nationally-recognised Gold Standard developed by the academy and Cogent Sector
Skills Council.
“We have a real
opportunity to come together and tackle the urgent skills issues facing the
industries. If North East employers are unsure about what to do and where to go
for advice, their first port of call should be to join the ranks of businesses
who are already working very successfully with the academy.”
At the
conference Kevin Thrower, Regional Skills Manager for the North East, said:
“There has been a great turnout of employers and training providers today, but
we need more employers to join our North East board to help shape the future of
our industry.
“These are not
just talking shops - they have real budgetary responsibility and influence over
how we create a world-class workforce that will put us in a good place for the
economic recovery.
“We would
particularly encourage SMEs to get involved as they have an invaluable role to
play and employ the lion’s share of the sector workforce.”
Keith Hunter,
managing director of training specialists TTE, who was also a delegate at the
conference, said: “There was a great turnout of employers for this, the first
conference, bearing in mind the pressures on all businesses at the moment. I was
very impressed by the depth and range of topics
discussed.”
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