Metals leader signs Skills Pledge with Minister
Leading metals company, Metsec plc, is the latest
organisation to adopt the government’s Skills Pledge. Metsec Chief
Executive, Stephen Tilsley, signed the Skills Pledge certificate
today in the presence of Skills Minister, David Lammy MP,
demonstrating his company’s commitment to investing in developing
employees’ skills for business success.
The Pledge signing took place when the Skills Minister met with
Stephen Tilsley and Lynn Tomkins, UK Director of Policy at Sector
Skills Council, Semta, and other senior representatives to discuss
skills needs in the metals, mechanical and electrical sector.
Witnessing the signature, Lynn Tomkins said: “A huge shift in
skills levels is vital if the UK is to compete with other
economies. Making the Pledge shows a company’s readiness to invest
in people and work with employees, its Sector Skills Council and
government to meet that challenge. Metsec is a successful business
with a strong track record of workforce training and development. I
am delighted that the company is publicly backing the drive for
increased skill and qualification levels by signing the Skills
Pledge today and urge more companies within the science,
engineering and manufacturing technologies sector to follow its
example.”
Itself an early signatory of the Skills Pledge, Semta is
currently negotiating a sector compact with the Learning and Skills
Council which will secure training funding for employers and aims
to increase the number of companies adopting the Skills Pledge.
Stephen Tilsley chairs the employer-led group which is driving
the development of Semta’s Sector Skills Agreement (SSA) for the
Metals, Mechanical and Electrical (MME) sector, to be launched in
April.
One of the SSA priorities which employers in the MME sector have
identified is to increase the number and quality of
apprenticeships. A champion of apprentice training, Tilsley said:
“Whilst upskilling the existing workforce to meet the skills needs
of the business is important, the value we derive from our
apprenticeships is immense. About 20% of our current workforce has
come through our apprenticeship scheme and we aim to double this
over the next 10 years. We expect 25 skilled employees to retire
over the next five years. Metsec has always trained apprentices and
so we already have 26 apprentices aged between 16 and 20 who are
being trained not simply to replace these retirees but to improve
on their skill levels.”
Commenting on the Skills Pledge, Tilsley said: “We know that
having highly-skilled employees is fundamental to delivering
quality products and services on time to our customers. We already
use a number of level 2 and level 3 programmes to boost not only
the skills of our workforce but also our business performance.
Signing the Skills Pledge increases Metsec’s profile as an employer
who develops its employees throughout their careers, whether they
are operators who are learning a new skill or managers taking on
new challenges. ”
Ends
Media contacts:
Icky Hasnain, Semta, 2nd Floor, Weston House, 246 High Holborn,
London WC1V 7EX.
T: 020 7 269 9840 F: 020 7 269 9859
M: 07872 377 638 E: ihasnain@semta.org.uk