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News Release from: Proskills | Subject: Training services
Edited by the Printingtalk Editorial
Team on 12 November 2007
Printing Industry Needs To Offer More
Training
There is a pressing demand for printers to provide more training and development opportunities for the industry as businesses fail to raise the skill levels of its employees.
That is in the opinion of Terry Watts, the chief executive officer of UK training organisation Proskills, following the Queen's Speech, which outlined the British Government's legislative programme for the next 12 months The Queen's Speech contained two bills that underline the Government's commitment to education and training - the Education and Skills Bill and Apprenticeships Draft Legislation
This article was originally published on Printingtalk on 22 Nov 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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Terry Watts said that it is essential that more companies join with Proskills to respond to the challenge of providing appropriate training and development to the industry.
He commented: "Whilst many enlightened companies are addressing skills development effectively and a lot of in-house development activity goes unrecognised, as a whole we are failing to work together systematically to raise the skills of employees." He continued: "Government is showing signs that it is becoming more flexible and is willing to move faster and the new bills demonstrate that.
But it is only by working together as industries that we can demonstrate the level of commitment that there is from employers to training to remain competitive and really get government support to make an impact on our sector.
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We think we have the qualifications that employers want in the system and there is funding available that will at least contribute to the costs.
Now we need more employers to come forward with their requirements." Watts added that whilst the current low levels of formally recognised training is due to a range of complex factors, the overall result is clear that an under-skilled workforce is not fulfilling its potential.
He explained: "As just one indicator of this, our research has shown that historically there has been poor take-up and completion of apprenticeships.
For example, 750 apprentices in a print industry of 160,000 is hardly preparing the workforce of the future." Watts continued by commenting that to maintain long-term competitiveness new employees must be attracted to the industry to ensure the transfer of essential skills.
Watts said: "Proskills has been working with employers to ensure that apprenticeships and other qualifications are designed to meet the industry needs and ensure excellent career opportunities for employees.
We are pushing at the open door of unitisation, to make qualifications in future more modular and more flexible to fit individual needs.
We are also working to improve the availability of providers of training across the country." In his view, the government's commitment to fund and support training as outlined by the new Education and Skills Bill and Apprenticeships Draft Legislation, as well as other initiatives, such as Train to Gain in England, was welcome.
But he added that it is the employers' commitment to raising the industry's skill levels that will ultimately determine the quality and competitiveness of its workforce.
He pointed out that research clearly demonstrated that out of the manufacturing businesses that fail, more than 70 per cent of them were not training their work forces.
And he concluded: "A review of the apprenticeship programme is currently under way and is due for completion in January 2008.
The industry has the opportunity to act now to show that it is willing and able to drive forward with the programme of change for apprenticeships.".
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