Remaining competitive in a global market

29th June 2010

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ePolitix.com speaks to Terry Watts, Proskills chief executive, on the work of the organisation and its influence in Parliament.

Could you tell us more about Proskills and the work that you do?

We are the sector skills council (SSC) for the process and manufacturing industry. They are a collection of nine traditional industries, which make up the supply chain to construction - including building products, glass, coating, printing and furniture. These industries employ about 850,000 people in around 80,000 businesses across the UK.

The job of Proskills is to represent their needs, so that they can continue to develop the skills of the workforce and remain competitive in a global market.

What do you feel the future holds for sector skills councils?

The new government seems to recognise something that we have been offering for a while - which is that sector skills councils have unprecedented engagement with their relevant industries, and that has not been exploited as well as it might. A recent CBI survey showed that over 60 per cent of companies knew their SSC, and two thirds are happy with them; an amazing, unrivalled, successful statistic from a skills initiative.

SSCs cover 90 per cent of UK industry and Proskills has a lot of the major companies, as well as many smaller companies; around 250 in all, from our sector on our industry boards. They drive our strategy, and set our priorities and work with us for free, because they believe in the future of their industries. The new government wants to exploit this opportunity - which will please employers. Hopefully we will have more strategic engagement going forward; setting direction rather than coping with what has been landed on us.

How have the process and manufacturing sectors been affected by the economic downturn?

It varies across the sector. The supply chain to construction has suffered as construction has been cut back, factories have closed; many have been on short-time working and made redundancies. The good thing is that we are beginning to see signs of recovery now - although no-one is confident enough to say that we have come out the other side. However, a number of the industries are showing signs of recovery, exporting goods and re-patriating work, supported by a weak pound.

Companies have been mature in their response to the recession. They have tried to maintain the skills of the workforce, by not laying off as many people as they had in the last downturn. Hopefully, having acted promptly, most companies are well set for when the economy makes a complete recovery.

How will the Budget impact on these sectors?

The Budget really only told us that everything is under review. Much of the sector will be looking for infrastructure investment, and while extensions to the Metro in Manchester were mentioned, it was notable that Crossrail was not mentioned: the worry is that there will not be as big a demand for materials to fuel recovery in the supply chain.

There wasn't really that much news for Proskills in the Budget - we will wait for the spending reviews to come through in the autumn. There is a lot more we can, and have offered to do to make the skills system simpler and more effective; with the other SSCs we keep plugging away and hopefully government will listen to what employers need!

Do parliamentarians focus enough on the process and manufacturing sectors?

Not at all. Skills in the public sector is so overly complex; despite its importance, it puts off most MPs, and employers, which doesn't help. Plus, as a sector, we tend to get forgotten, behind the more politically active construction sector (building contractors), and engineering manufacturing (defence and automotive). Our sector is a collection of smaller, more traditional industries with the largest, furniture and print, having about 150,000-170,000 employees.

Traditionally, many politicians and civil servants have simplified what they see as manufacturing to equate to cars and aeroplanes. Also, when thinking about construction, most people think of bricklayers, or those who 'assemble' houses, roads etc. However, increasing amounts are done in the manufacturing sector, off-site, and simply put together, so they need to re-think.

Proskills is taking a different approach with the new group of MPs that we have, to make sure that they know which of the sectors have representation in their constituencies, introducing them where appropriate to local employers, and giving them the chance to see what goes on in the sector.

What more can be done to promote the sectors to Parliament?

An awful lot more can be done. The sector hasn't received a great deal of public sector support either financially or in terms of helpful legislation, other than regulation! What the industries need is support and encouragement that they are considered, that there is benefit in working together, and that they can influence change.

One of the factors that doesn't help is that there is no geographic focal point for the industries, they are spread all over the country because they tend to have to be near their customers. These industries are not going away, however; they make up the literal fabric of our society and if we ever get to the stage where we have to import the majority of our building materials, we will no longer be able to afford to build anything! Parts of the sector are among the most productive and efficient in the world, and need to be supported to remain so.

Manufacturing in this country is doing well; it will do better once the economy has fully improved. There are lots of good companies that MPs should get to know in their constituencies, as they hold the key to recovery.

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