Proskills

Proskills Regional Contact:

Gary Overton, Employer Engagement & Northern Regions Manager
Proskills UK (Head Office)
Centurion Court, 85b Milton Park
Abingdon
Oxfordshire
OX14 4RY

Overview of the Sector in the North East

The Proskills Sector Skills Council (SSC) covers the industry sectors of Coatings, Extractives, Glass, Building products and Refractories and Print. (Bull 2005)

The sector comprises a strong, cohesive, group of industries that share common sectoral issues and supply chains, but there is also a need to ensure that sub-sectors are effectively addressed by Proskills. (Bull 2005)

The sector employs 454,000 people throughout the UK; this represents 13 per cent of manufacturing employment. The workforce is spread out throughout the UK in roughly the same pattern as overall employment: 85 per cent is in England, 8 per cent in Scotland, 4 per cent in Wales and 3 per cent in Northern Ireland. (Bull 2005)

Employment in the sector is proportionately under-represented in the North East with 4% of the workforce at 19,000 people represented and 4% of the companies of the UK wide Proskills footprint. (Bull 2005)         

The workforce is predominantly male (77 per cent), middle-aged (it has an under-representation of the younger age groups) and white (98 per cent). (Bull 2005)

The workforce has a higher proportion of skilled trades and process, plant and machine operatives and a lower proportion engaged in professional occupations, Associate professional occupations, personal service and sales and customer service jobs than the UK workforce as a whole. (Bull 2005)

The workforce has a lower proportion qualified to higher levels (Level 3 and above) and a higher proportion with Level 2 and lower (including no) qualifications. (Bull 2005)

Nationally it is estimated that there are 27,500 employing establishments in the sector. Although the majority are small (90 per cent have less than 25 employees), this is no different to the rest of the UK’s economy. (Bull 2005)

The climate for process and manufacturing industry in recent years has been difficult. Challenges stem from over-capacity, globalisation and increasing regulations. Companies have been forced to introduce changes in product and manufacturing technology, working systems and supply chain management. (Bull 2005)

Key Issues facing the sector now and in the future

Different industries within the sector have experienced different issues with the common ground being globalisation and related issues. Although volumes have not significantly reduced, without increased markets there has been a general trend towards mergers and acquisitions that has usually resulted in the shedding of labour. Some companies have closed UK operations and invested in East European and East Asian plants where labour is cheaper and exchange rates attractive. (Bull 2006)

Another dimension is that manufacturers’ customers are migrating overseas, so causing substantial changes to markets and related pressures. (Bull 2005)

While parts of the sector which mainly serve the UK home market have not experienced difficulties associated with exchange rates and foreign labour costs they have still undergone major reorganisations to enable them to compete against alternative materials. (Bull 2005)

Some part of the sector, such as print and coatings have undertaken benchmarking exercises to establish their position relative to other UK sectors and others have produced international comparisons. All comparative studies point to the need for further improvements in productivity. (Bull 2005)

It is becoming accepted that it is increasingly difficult to make productivity gains by shedding labour, because any longstanding slack in the workforce has been taken out. The sector must therefore focus its attention on obtaining productivity gains by investment in skills and technology and improved processes. (Bull 2005)

Employment Issues in the North East

Recruitment difficulties and causes

Data from the National Employer Skills Survey show that 13% of establishments in the Proskills sector had vacancies, 8% hard-to-fill vacancies and 5% were facing skill shortage vacancies. These figures are broadly comparable to those for the England ‘all-industry’ data. Data for Wales and Scotland suggest that recruitment difficulties in the sector there are of a similar magnitude.

Workforce Development in the North East

Skill shortages/gaps in existing workforce and latent skills issues

Just over a fifth (21%) of establishments in the sector suffered from internal skill gaps, which is again similar to that for England overall (22%). This suggests that 9%of all jobs in the sector suffer from skill gaps – a level considerably lower than the all-England figure of 22%. Again, data for Wales and Scotland suggests that the issue of skill gaps in the sector is of a similar order. (Bull 2005)

Proskills have engaged and consulted with employers via our industry group meetings there are several issues facing the sector:

• Leadership and management skills, many employers are experiencing difficulties in raising the level of management skills to meet the strategic, innovation and legal requirements of their businesses.
• 14 -19 year olds, many employers feel that school leavers are “not ready for work” and lack the basic literacy and numeracy skills required. They also feel that career advisors are not promoting manufacturing as a career option in schools and colleges.
• Work experience opportunities for pupils in schools, appears to have reduced dramatically over a period of time, many employers would welcome the opportunity to introduce pupils to their particular industry. Some employers have suggested a longer period of work experience.
• All employers raised the issue of the age profile (average age of skilled employees in the sector is 42+) of their workforces in their industries and the difficulty in finding staff with the required skills needed to fill vacancies.
• A return to Traditional apprenticeships is also high on the agenda for our employers in the sector.
• Language skills are becoming a more important issue, as the number of foreign people applying for positions and commencing work with employers is rising.

Learning and Skills Infrastructure in the North East

Relevance and quality of existing provision

The lack of suitable colleges offering the needs of the sector is of major concern to the employers in the sector.

Barriers to employers accessing the skills provision they need

Employers in the Proskills’ sector demonstrate:

A lower level of planning and budgeting for training than their counterparts across England as a whole

Are less likely to have funded training for their staff over the last 12 months

Are less likely to have linked this training to formal qualifications, and are less likely to be accredited as an Investor in People

Given this, it is not surprising that fewer proportions of individuals in the sector have received training than across the UK as a whole. Action is required to demonstrate the benefits of training to employers in the sector, and stimulate increased demand.

Best Practice

Other Employment and Skills Issues in the North East

Strategic Needs identified by Proskills

Given the relatively low qualification base of the workforce and the deficiencies in training, the sector has an opportunity to boost its performance through more attention to skills across the UK. Action in the sector is needed to:

Address recruitment issues, partly through improvement in retention, partly via addressing issues around the image of the sector, particularly in relation to young people (Bull 2005)

Engage employers and stakeholders in boosting the performance of the sector by investing in people, and demonstrate the return to business from improved productivity (Bull 2005)

Support employers in boosting productivity by addressing skill gaps by improving management competence, further development of National Occupational Standards and by developing a learning culture for all the workforce (Bull 2005)

Support the delivery of effective health and safety performance by employers, and address the needs of the SME’s in the sector (Bull 2005)

In order to do these, real progress has to be made with engagement of employers individuals, government and other partners, including SSC’s where there is a degree of overlap and shared issues (Bull 2005)

Despite much of the current perceptions about Process and Manufacturing sector, it uses and invests heavily in new technologies, particularly in design, plant usage and process control, which add value to the finished product. Training on new equipment is expensive, but the NSA will gain, via economies of scale with suppliers, new equipment for use by trainees. (Bull 2005)

E-Learning and e-assessment is here already but it is set to increase considerably over the next 3-5 years.  Research shows that small businesses are more likely to engage in learning and development if it can be delivered at a time and place to suit the business. (Bull 2005)

References
Bull 2005 - Faye Bull, Regional Manager for East Midlands, York and Humberside

Supporting Documents and Downloads

Proskills SSA Stage 3 UK Report [pdf] (904 KB)

Draft SSA Exec Report [pdf] (2.28 MB)