19 Jul 2013
Senior representatives from the UK’s chemical industry have presented an important draft Sector growth strategy to the Government, which includes a skills component.
The Chemistry Growth Strategy Group (CGSG) was established
to examine the key levers for growth and how a partnership with Government
might work.
The three pillars on which the strategy is based are:
·Securing competitive energy and feedstock
supplies
·Accelerating innovation across the industry
·Rebuilding the UK’s chemical supply chains The report also identifies six “enabling areas” to support
the chemical industry.One of these is
to tackle skills shortages, with programmes to promote the industry to
schoolchildren and introduce fit-for-purpose qualifications and training.
Cogent, the industry’s skills body, has developed the skills component of the
strategy, and this includes the establishment of an employer-led Science
Industry Partnership (SIP), currently the subject of a major funding bid to
Government.
Cogent Strategy Director, John Holton said: “Cogent is
working with employers to facilitate industry-led skills for growth within the chemicals
sector. If the SIP bid is approved, the solutions will equip the industry with
the key skills it needs at every level of the workforce - from entry level
through to post-graduate. Importantly, these
programmes would be designed by the employers themselves, backed by joint
investment from the Government.”
The CGSG’s vision, set out at the start of the report,
states: by 2030, the UK chemical industry will have further reinforced its
position as the country’s leading manufacturing exporter and enabled the
chemistry-using industries to increase their Gross Value Added contribution to
the UK economy by 50%, from £195m to £300m.
UK business minister Michael Fallon has formally
welcomed the report as “an important contribution” to the government’s overall
industrial strategy. A full formal
report will follow in Q3.
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