SCOTLAND is to get its own national skills academy for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Scottish training organisations in the industry will be able to apply for accreditation from the National Skills Academy (NSA) for the first time. The NSA for the ’process industries’ which also includes polymer companies as well as any oil and gas firms that do not work offshore is in talks with Scottish Enterprise in an attempt to secure funding for the scheme.

There are seven academy ’hubs’ in England and Wales, funded over the past two years by a 4.5 million government grant from Westminster and match funding from industries in the sector.

A Scottish hub would be likely to be based in the Stirling area to be convenient for both the central belt and Aberdeen’s oil and gas industries. Currently, Scottish companies can use the NSA’s national process industries’ website, but training providers north of the Border cannot be accredited, meaning that courses on offer are all England-based.

Skills Academy chief executive Philip Jones said the academy would allow Scottish companies to find local accredited training courses as well as offering workers a nationalised training ’passport’ giving their training recognition when moving between companies. He explained: ’The concept of skills academies was born around two years ago when employers decided they wanted more say over training in main sectors of industry. Until now, it has only existed in England.’The whole emphasis of the NSA is to increase awareness about the industry and also ’upskill’ the workers.’He added: ’Suitable training courses are very important in our industry. Despite the credit crunch, a lot of companies are still working three shifts and cannot send workers off on long courses. We have to work out what the best way is for training providers to offer courses which fit in around the industry.’

He added that he hoped to get the academy up and running over the next 12 months.Jones continued: ’We have already made contact with Scottish Enterprise and hope we may be able to get some funding in Scotland. We think they see the benefit of the academy so we are fairly confident. ’However, if funding is not available we would still hope to do this just perhaps not quite as quickly.’The sector employs more than 50,000 workers north of the Border and generates turnover of around 28 billion a year, according to figures supplied by the NSA.

The Scottish academy is being backed by Tom Crotty, chief executive of Ineos Olefins and Polymers, based at Grangemouth. Crotty said:  'Employers will benefit from using industry-specific training providers who understand what we want and how we want it delivered, and all to a new gold standard developed by the academy and Cogent Sector Skills Council.’

A spokesman for Scottish Enterprise said: ’We would welcome a National Skills Academy for the process industries in Scotland and look forward to working with them as well as our colleagues in Skills Development Scotland to take forward any proposals they have.’VITAL INDUSTRIES

• The process industries in Scotland generate revenues of 28 billion a year 18 per cent of the UK-wide figure.
• 1,500 people are employed in the process industries in Scotland, about 8 per cent of the total workforce in the sector across the UK.
• Some 73 per cent of the UK oil and gas industry workforce is employed in Scotland, 38 per cent of them work in Aberdeen.
• The average worker in the sector in Scotland earns 577.88 a week compared
  with the UK weekly average pay figure of 381.50.

Source Article
The Scotsman Business News