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Terry Watts admits he faces a big task persuading the packaging industry to sign up to Proskills, the sector skills council (SSC) for process and manufacturing industries.

“The government, trade associations and awarding bodies are on side,” he says. “The next thing is to get the companies signed up.”

Watts has spent much of this year explaining to packaging companies why their training needs would be best met through Proskills, one of the 25 SSCs that replaced the old national training organisations.

The printing, glass and coatings industries are already signed up to Proskills, so it covers the packaging industry to some extent.

But Watts says that if packaging joins the Proskills programme as planned, he will appoint an industry champion to “get under its skin”.

Watts says Proskills has been an effective advocate for its existing member industries by highlighting to the government that manufacturing isn’t all about “cars and aeroplanes”.

“We will make sure the industry’s voice is heard, generally relating to training, but we can also link this
to other things, for example the environment debate,” he says.

Watts, who worked for IBM for 14 years then ran his own consultancy before entering the training field, says Proskills’ biggest challenge will be to reach packaging’s many small and medium-sized businesses.

This is followed by in-house packaging operations or those closely allied to customers, which are “difficult because they are often a bit insular”.

Tangible results
There are some doubts, however, about exactly what the packaging industry will gain from Proskills.

Although, on the surface, training uptake seems low, many packaging companies train staff in-house and don’t send them on external courses. Then there is the industry’s diversity and the fact that some of its constituent parts are already served by other SSCs, for example plastics through Cogent.

Watts is clear, though, that Proskills can widen the training opportunities available to packaging.

For example, Proskills is poised to sign a £2m contract that will provide funding for 2,000 people across its remit to take training in lean manufacturing processes.

It is also able to link companies with training brokers through the government’s Train to Gain scheme, which provides funding for firms to put their staff through national vocational qualifications (NVQs), mainly at Level 2.

And Proskills plans to bring more flexibility to the training in its member industries and to help companies bridge the gap between in-house training and formal qualifications.

“Most qualifications have three components – technical knowledge, practical, and inter-personal skills,” says Watts. “The government likes qualifications to have that shape. Companies tend to train people on the technical bit and don’t do the rest.

“We can look at what they do in-house and what they do with suppliers and make that the technical component. Then we get a training provider to say they can accredit that bit. We will watch them do the other bits and that will make the qualification.

“It’s good for the government, the employer (they get funding), and for the employee (they get a recognised qualification).”

Added to this will be a new framework for achievement, which will break down NVQs into modules. Employer and employee will be able to choose those modules most suited to a job and build up a portfolio that will lead to a recognised qualification.

Knowledge network
Proskills has also won funding to set up a national skills academy to connect companies with training providers.

This is not a ‘bricks and mortar’ academy but a hub of information. Employers will be able to contact the academy with training queries and be pointed in the right direction, whether to a further education provider, a machinery supplier or a private training company.

Watts doesn’t expect the whole of the packaging industry to sign up to his vision. In the other industries covered by Proskills, he says the companies that got involved initially were “not in the majority”, but they worked to “make it accessible” for the rest.

Ultimately, what these companies really want is “money, training and qualifications delivered”, says Watts.

But if packaging remains outside the SSC framework, as it has since its split from the Science, Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies Alliance last year, it will find it increasingly difficult to make a case for a share of the government’s £10bn vocational training budget.

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PROSKILLS PROPOSAL
• If the packaging industry joins Proskills, it will set up a packaging industry group with around 20 industry representatives, the vast majority of them employers.
• The chairman of this industry group will sit on the main Proskills board.
• The industry would contribute £20,000 towards the running of the packaging group.
• More from www.proskills.co.uk