News

A new academy to promote topflight skills and training in the Proskills sector has opened its doors thanks to the efforts of Unite, the UK’s largest union. Proskills, one of the key Sector Skills Councils in the UK, has announced that it has secured an Academy which is due to come on-stream soon and will go some way towards helping arrest the talent drain across the Proskills industries.

Unite is hopeful that the Academy for Materials, Production and Supply will provide a new mechanism to deliver the skills critical sectors need for the future but only if industries are prepared to use it.

Speaking at the launch of the Academy in London last week (Tuesday, 25th June), Unite Assistant General Secretary, Tony Burke, said: “It is no secret that Unite has been highly critical of the lack of training in some sectors of industry. The negative response from some employers when asked to step up their training arrangements is damaging to our industry.

“As technologies change, so too must training and skills. A time of recession is just the time to invest in the talents of your workforce because skills will always be needed.

“As a sector, we cannot stand still. If we are going to come out of this recession in any decent shape, if we are still to have a decent manufacturing base, we will need to have the high levels of production, operational, technical skills, which the current system has not been able to deliver.

“We cannot afford yet another skills shortage. It will make the recession longer and this country less appealing to business, which is why we must build skilled workforces and a skilled employee base in the UK.”

For more information contact Tony Burke on 07831 659939, Bernard Rutter on 07973 630962 or Ashraf Choudhury in the Unite press office on 020 7420 7914 or 07980 224761.