Skills Council Forms For Print and Packaging

At a series of half-day UK events, 95 per cent of attendees supported the formation of Proskills, the prospective Sector Skills Council, which will work with the UK Government.

At a series of half-day UK events, 95 per cent of attendees supported the formation of Proskills, the prospective Sector Skills Council, which will work with the UK Government to develop the skills that UK business needs.

Proskills operates in five key industry sectors, inlcuding print and printed packaging, as well as coatings.

One of the key features of Proskills will be its employer-led approach, said the organisation.

The sessions, which were held in Cardiff, Belfast, Manchester, London and Glasgow attracted 200 people from the industry, including 50 people working within the print and printed packaging sector.

At each event, Terry Watts, Proskills' newly-appointed chief executive officer, outlined the purpose and structure of the new venture and then led discussion in group sessions where participants discussed the key skills issues, the role of Government in the industrial training arena and how Proskills will help meet current challenges.

Proskills said that feedback from the events identified four key skill priorities - recruitment and development of young people in to the industry, improvement of management competence, continuous development of the workforce and Health and Safety competencies.

Acting on the first of those, Proskills is already undertaking a GBP 190,000 project to look at ways of attracting more young people in a job-market where competition from what it described as 'sexier' industries, such as media and IT, make it difficult to recruit into the industry, despite the many exciting opportunities that are available.

The project will look at good practice across the sector, leading to the creation of a set of new and modified Apprenticeship programmes which are expected to be available in the spring of 2006.

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