We're gearing up to make the big difference

Jun 23 2008 by Karen McLauchlan, The Journal

The fight to bring the National Skills Academy for the Process Industries to the North East was hard won. Now the real work begins, as Sue Scott discovered.

WITHIN days of getting his feet under the desk, Philip Jones had an inbox full of emails with personal messages of support from some of the most powerful people in the process industry.

If you’d put a match to the cocktail of chemical companies listed in his address book, you’d have blown up half of Teesside.

Response to his appointment as the first chief to lead the newly formed National Skills Academy for the Process Industries surprised even the man himself.

“Mood in the industry is incredibly high,” he says. “There’s a fantastic desire to help support and drive the thing forward.”

That doesn’t mean the role comes without challenges. The raison d’etre for the Academy, after all, was a recognition that without it the industry faced a slow starvation of the skills it needed to survive. And, nationally, it has a formidable appetite. To sustain growth at current rates, it’s predicted to need 48,000 recruits by 2015. And, given the current economic climate, maintaining that growth has become crucially important, not just for the 11,000 or so companies and countless more in its immediate supply chain, but also for the economy as a whole.

Processing has been the jewel in the UK industry’s crown for the past 10 years, demonstrating the fastest growth of any sector, attaining an average rate of 2.6% per annum.

Around quarter of that growth is centred on the North East where the sector represents 30% of the region’s industrial base. And on Teesside the figures distill down even further, so that the three main pillars of the sector – pharma, chemicals and polymers – contribute 60% of the local economy’s GDP, while biofuels, a newcomer to the stable, is forecast to be worth £1bn to the North East over the next 20 years.

As far as Teesside was concerned it was always the natural home for the skills academy, although it was by no means an odds-on certainty that the region would win it – the North West very nearly pipped it to the post, reveals Jones.

“The North East lobbied for it and won it. They know the reasons for having it: upskilling and the demographic problems that the industry has been suffering from,” says business development manager Ian Mains.

Now, along with the rest of the process industry nationwide, they must help fund it and, given the disproportionate demographics, most of that money will come from the North East.

“We are financed by three funding streams but we have got to move towards primary industry support,” explains Ian. And quickly.

The business plan, which is still in development, has a pencilled-in target of 2011, by which time the Academy needs to generate £1.5m annually from private enterprise to support its activities. With nearly 90% of the processing industry made up of SMEs, the Academy must avoid the bear trap of becoming enthrall to the biggest players with the fattest wallets.

“It needs to be geographically composed and industry composed,” says Philip. “We have to make sure all the industries are covered.”

In order to achieve that, the Academy has enlisted the assistance of two of the most influential and respected campaigners in the fight to bring the hub to Teesside – George Ritchie of Sembcorp, who will lead the North East board, and Stan Higgins of the cluster group NEPIC, which will have partner status.

Philip is conscious that he has to move fast to prove the Academy’s worth. “The first thing firms on the ground will notice is that they have a focus,” he says.

Already, the regional spokes are beginning to turn in the four outposts that will be in place by the end of the Academy’s first year.

The North East, Yorkshire and Humber, the North West and the Midlands, will have their own industry-led boards, reporting to the Teesside hub, which has a physical presence in Philip’s sparsely decorated office on the second floor of Tees University’s Innovation Centre. In year two, it aims to set up spokes in the South East and East, the South West and Wales, and Scotland and Northern Ireland.

“Spokes are the voices in the regions,” says JPhilip. “Over the next couple of months we will be setting up industry-led regional advisory groups who will decide the specific needs of those regions.

“The footprints in each are different, but we, in the North East, are the strongest in terms of finance.”

Whatever their make-up, the boards share the same aim: to avoid a 25% skills gap opening up between the UK and the US, the sector’s leading producer - against whom all yardsticks in the industry are measured -by 2016.

“If we do not meet the skills gap, companies will move out. Most of them are internationally owned – they will simply take their business elsewhere,” says Philip. Nationally, the industry spends £650m on training, but not all of it is accredited and one of the first tasks of the Academy is to quantify the level and quality of the training on offer..

“There is a whole series of projects, but the first to hit the ground is ASET (Assessment System for Employer Training). It’s all about accrediting existing skills within the industry and they will be quick wins,” says Ian.

“The Academy is a route to market,” adds Jones. “It brings together an accredited set of providers, up-skilling them, increasing their capacity both in terms of bums on seats and number of seats. There’s a capital plan, which is the seats, and a revenue plan, which is the bums. It’s not just taking general qualifications, but making them specific to the industries.”

The recruitment of young people is core to its strategy.

“The Academy is focusing on the 14-19 agenda which links to what the clusters are doing,” says Ian. “We are working very closely with NEPIC’s primary and secondary schools programme. The work it has done over the past 12 months is changing perceptions. The recruitment of young people into the industry is key.”

It also ties in neatly with the government’s agenda for moving mainstream education towards work-based diplomas.

“The money for training at that level is going to be distributed by local authorities. The question is how we as an Academy link in with the predicted closure of the Learning and Skills Council. That’s work in progress,” says Ian.

Working through an accredited training network, the Academy aims to plug the skills gaps wherever they occur. “In the pharma sector, for example, there’s a real issue with quality professionals world wide. They don’t just ensure the quality of the product, but of the whole process and the only training course in the UK is in Bournemouth. There used to be one on Teesside and we know people are going from here. That’s an example of where the Academy can help.”

Within five years it aims to have 170 accredited training centres in the UK across the three sub sectors, although Philip admits that he’s a man in search of answers. “What is the capacity of the industry and the training providers? That’s known by each, but not on an aggregate basis.”

Concentrating the mind of the process industry on Teesside has other advantages for the sector.

“We are a national voice for the industry so we can leverage funding that has not been leveraged before, whether that’s from the Learning and Skills Council or regional development agencies, we will hopefully be able to increase what is available,” says Philip, who will draw on his previous experience in delivering the High Growth Programme for the East Midlands Development Agency.

“Through Cogent [the sector skills council] we already have the Gold Standard, which is the basic skills bench mark being developed. The 25% skills gap with the US gets closed when the sector reaches that Gold Standard. It’s not just about accrediting existing employers and saying ‘Well done, here’s a certificate’ – we have to be world beating.”

The North East process sector, he says, was punching above its weight even before the Academy arrived. NEPIC, which represents 200 companies in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, speciality petrochemical and commodity chemical industries, along with 150 companies in the supply chain, had leveraged £3m worth of funding – ten times what most clusters achieve.

“We have a huge amount of support already if you look at our Academy in comparison with others. Keeping companies engaged and delivering to them is our biggest challenge.”

National Skills Academy for the Process Industries posts

PHILIP JONES, CEO – a former general manager with BASF, he most recently led the High Growth Programme for East Midlands Development Agency. He will lead the seven-strong team at Teesside University and the regional managers.

DR IAN MAINS, business development manager – Ian has 30 years’ experience in the process industries. He was a senior chief executive with the pharma company Aesica as well as a key member of NEPIC.

KEVIN THROWER, North East Spoke manager – previously with GSK at Barnard Castle.

LIZ ROONEY, skills development manager – former Cogent director of research and policy.

BEV ROBINSON – hub manager.

NEIL SMITH – skills development manager.

ASIM KHALID – finance controller.

DEMI EWAR – business support administrator.