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Lord Sainsbury of TurvilleLaunch of People Skills Scoreboard for the Engineering Industry |
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Good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the DTI. Thank you, Lord Trefgarne, for those kind words of introduction. I am delighted to be here today for the launch of the third People Skills Scoreboard for the Engineering Industry. There are two reasons why I was so pleased to accept EMTA and EEF's invitation to speak to you today. First, because I wanted to show my personal support for the People Skills Scoreboard. As some of you may know, EMTA and EEF are pioneers in this regard. As part of the Action for Engineering Initiative, they worked with DTI to devise the original concept and published the first ever Scoreboard in 1998. They have also worked hard over the past three years to expand and develop the Scoreboard into the valuable benchmarking tool that it is today. It is a measure of that hard work that the number of participating companies has grown so impressively - from 178 in 1998, to 505 last year and 602 this. I am particularly pleased that this year's People Skills Scoreboard includes so many SMEs and that one of the case studies we will hear from later this morning is from an SME. It is generally true that the largest companies do the most training. Indeed, the 1999 Learning and Training at Work survey reported that 91% of the largest firms had provided training to their employees over the previous year, while only 25% of the smallest had. But by participating in the People Skills Scoreboard, some smaller firms are showing that they take training seriously and that they recognise the importance of investing in their people. As with all good ideas, the Scoreboard is one that has been copied. DTI and DfEE have taken your original concept and worked with National Training Organisations and other sector bodies to spread it to a wide cross section of industry sectors. In July, we published a scoreboard featuring 190 companies from the Clothing, Textile and Footwear industries and we will shortly be publishing the first ever People Skills Scoreboard for the Multimedia industry. More than 20 sectors have now produced scoreboards - from steel to IT and sports and recreation to property services. Several of these sectors are already working on their second scoreboard. So, as you can see, we very grateful for the engineering industry's original idea. The second reason why I wanted to come and speak to you today was so I could emphasise the importance that this Government attaches to the whole skills agenda - from basic literacy and numeracy to highly specialised vocational skills. All sectors of the economy, from traditional manufacturing plants to the most innovative high-technology start-ups are finding that their current and future success is dependent on a highly skilled and adaptable workforce. Higher skills certainly lead to higher productivity and profits for companies and improved earnings and job security for individuals. But we live in an ever more globalised economy where it is essential that companies stay ahead by capturing higher value-added business - which sets an even higher premium on the skills and innovation of the whole workforce. This is particularly relevant in engineering, where the increasingly multi-disciplinary nature of the industry means that the issue of skills and training is becoming ever more important. The quality of training a firm provides is key to the organisation being able to produce high quality products and services. As a workforce becomes more skilled, the visions of the organisation can become more ambitious because the full potential of the people is released into an environment of achievement. As a nation, we have some way to go to match the rapidly rising skill levels in a number of our overseas competitors. The UK still has one-third fewer people qualified to NVQ Level 2 than either France or Germany. We have only half as many people qualified to NVQ level 3 or above as does Germany. There are some positive signs, for example the most recent quarterly labour force survey showed the largest increase in the number of employees receiving training since the survey began in 1992. But we all face a stiff challenge and none of us can afford to be complacent. Government is committed to working with you in business to transform skills development and ensure that these positive trends continue and expand. Government's role includes the provision of basic skills. We know that poor literacy and numeracy lead to low productivity, less training and greater risks to health and safety at work - perhaps costing an average company of over 50 staff as much as £165,000 every year. That is why we have introduced the literacy and numeracy hours in schools and are ensuring that basic skills provision for adults is free. We are also working to ensure that we can provide our young people with the highest standards of teaching in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. We announced in the recent Science and Innovation White Paper that we proposed to strengthen the support available to teachers so as to ensure that every young person is able to make sense of the world in which we live and the way it is changing. This will give the best possible start to those who want to pursue careers in STEM-related areas. It will also help ensure that levels of scientific and technical literacy are strengthened so that we can all, as citizens, take sensible decisions about those issues where science and technology are pushing at the boundaries of human knowledge and ability. We have also created the Learning and Skills Council, which together with strengthened sectoral skills organisations will support businesses in securing the skills they need to ensure current and future competitiveness. From next April this will be responsible for post-16 education and training, bringing greater strategic and operational focus to learning provision, and engaging closely with employers. We are increasing funding to £5.5 billion next year - an increase of 9%. David Blunkett recently announced plans to focus training provision in colleges much more closely on sectoral and local business needs - and to drive up the quality of teaching provision. One element of LSC's work will involve looking to the future and assessing those skills which will be vital if we are to respond to the rapid pace of technological development. I know that this is an issue that is currently being looked at by the EMTA/EEF Joint Education and Training Policy Committee, which has established a Working Group to advise on present and future skill needs of engineering manufacturing, and by the Hawley Review of the Engineering Council in relation to the wider engineering community. We also need to demonstrate that we have a workforce that is able to use the very latest technology. We need to ensure that we have a supply of bright, well-educated and innovative people pursuing careers in science, engineering and technology. Engineers and Engineering are key to the continued prosperity of this country. If this is remain the case in future years, we need to have more graduates with the necessary skills and training, particularly at the intermediate level, who are able to set up and use new technology on the shopfloor and in the office. DTI has established the Engineering Technician Cluster Groups initiative to improve the technical and managerial skills of engineering technicians and to encourage collaboration between sectoral networks and clusters of small firms to improve training provision and share best practice. I am pleased that both the EMTA and the EEF are active participants in one of these networks in the West Midlands. But the main responsibilities for improving skill levels must rest with companies. Employers' investment in skills development is nearly triple that of the LSC's budget. Individual employers need to make skills an integral part of their overall business strategy and ensure the optimum development, deployment and commitment of their entire workforce - not just graduate trainees or apprentices. Which brings me back to the scoreboard. I believe it contains some extremely valuable information. But it is important that the information is effectively used. I therefore urge firms to use it to benchmark themselves against the best in their industry sector and use the case study profiles as a source of best practice information when devising and updating their own training and business plans. As the Knowledge-Driven Economy becomes every day a greater reality, it is vitally important to every company that their employees have the knowledge and skills to compete in today's global markets. Thank you. |
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Other speeches by Lord Sainsbury of Turville
(the following are available from the archive) |
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