UK must play catch-up on skills

Celebrating the Academy's third birthday and the end of the three year development period following a successful review by the Skills Funding Agency, skills minister John Hayes said: "The UK has a rich manufacturing heritage and the National Skills Academy for Manufacturing has a vital role to play in ensuring a prosperous future for the sector. Through working with employers and partners, the Skills Academy has been able to support businesses in achieving real benefits, enthusing companies and workforces. The organisation's third anniversary is a real milestone, representing the end of its developmental phase, and its establishment as a key support for manufacturing companies across the country." The Skills Academy was set up in 2007 to deliver economic benefit through work-based learning for the UK manufacturing sector. In partnership with parent company Semta, the Sector Skills Council for Science, Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies, the Skills Academy says it has helped 750 employers realise bottom-line benefits and nearly 8,000 individual learners have received training. Philip Whiteman, said: "While the UK is currently number seven in world manufacturing rankings, when it comes to low and intermediate skills we are placed at 17th and 20th place respectively. Our research also reveals the need for nearly 30,000 jobs per year between now and 2016, to meet demand from rapidly growing sectors like advanced manufacturing. With every leading nation focusing on skills as a future competitive tool, the challenge is to find a way of accelerating our development to first catch up with, and then overtake the competition."