Alan Johnson announces the first National Skills Academies ready to go live

London, 31 October 2006: Education and Skills Secretary Alan Johnson today announced the launch of the first three National Skills Academies to drive up the standard of industry training, improve productivity and tackle skills shortages across England.

In addition, Mr Johnson announced the next four sectors that have successfully bid to be part of the National Skills Academy programme.

The launch marks the start of an employer-led, world-class National Skills Academy network to provide vocational education and training for school leavers and adults, tailor made to meet the specific needs of industry sectors and those who work in them.

The first three academies that have been approved and will shortly become operational are in Financial Services, Construction, and Manufacturing. A fourth, representing the Food and Drink sector is close to being approved.

Bids from the nuclear industry; the chemical industry; the hospitality sector; and the creative and cultural industries have been accepted by the Government and will now be invited to work up business plans ready for the next stage of the process.

The aim is to have up to 12 academies operational by 2008 and the Government is investing £90 million in the programme which will be delivered through the Learning and Skills Council working with employers and their Sector Skills Councils. Two bidding rounds have taken place so far, a third is planned for early 2007.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said the start of the National Skills Academy programme marked a turning point in skills training that would ensure British industry remained competitive in the long term and able to respond rapidly to changing needs and demands.

Tony Blair said:

“It is vital that we continue to improve skills right across the board and I am very pleased that we are able to launch the first academies today.”

“The new National Skills Academies are an exciting partnership between Government and industry to ensure we have the well-trained staff needed for the future.”

To mark the launch, Alan Johnson, together with Skills Minister Phil Hope, today hosted a business breakfast to congratulate the founders of the first three National Skills Academies and encourage other sectors to follow suit.

Alan Johnson said:

“Raising skills is essential to wealth creation and creating a society of opportunity for all. The National Skills Academy programme will improve our capacity for learning by driving up standards and specialisation with the learning sector. This will be good for individuals and employers alike and give all parties a real chance to address the skills gap and close it.”

Employers are at the heart of the development of the National Skills Academy programme, giving them a real say in how they are run, including:

• influencing the curriculum to ensure it reflects their needs;
• setting standards;
• determining what network of providers they want to work with;
• getting involved in the management of the academies; and,
• shaping their strategic direction.

They will also part fund National Skills Academies providing capital investment as well as equipment know-how and industry insight. Employer sponsorship will fund about 50% of the capital costs of a National Skills Academy with about 35% coming from the Government and the remainder from other sources such as European funding.

Currently £33 billion is spent by employers on staff training and development with nearly two thirds (65 percent) providing training for their employees. But investment is often unfocussed and despite this financial outlay, one in five organisations report skills gaps among their workforce.

The National Skills Academy network will help to address these skills gaps by ensuring future recruits have the skills required by industry and are able to make a real difference to businesses’ bottom line from their first day.

They will operate under different models that reflect the needs of their sectors. The varied models will include state of the art centres, linked networks of providers in Further and Higher Education, mobile delivery of training on work sites and e-learning materials for flexible learning.

Chris Banks, Chair of the Learning and Skills Council said:

“Ultimately, we envisage the network will train tens of thousands of learners each year with ambitions to have one for each sector of the economy in place by 2012.”

“The benefits to employers are far reaching. The National Skills Academy network will be another route to help ensure consistent high quality training across the country, resulting in a more highly trained and motivated workforce, with improvements to productivity and performance overall.”

Notes for editors

1. The National Skills Academy network was initiated by the Government to address the need for a world class workforce and offer employers a totally new method of influencing the types of training and method of delivery.
2. The NSA programme builds on the success of the Pathfinder Fashion Retail Academy now open in London.
3. The National Skills Academies will be focussed on vocational education and skills training, delivering to young people (16-19 year olds) and adults and be sector-based centres of excellence with national reach.
4. Two rounds of bids for National Skills Academies have so far been run - both starting with the publication of a prospectus inviting expressions of interest, and followed by a panel assessment for the most persuasive and promising proposals. The assessment panel has government officials from a range of departments and agencies, but is weighted towards its employer membership, and has an independent employer chair. The panel selects those bids which it feels are sufficiently strong to go into a full phase of business planning. That phase may take up to a year and involves all the detailed preparation required to turn the vision of the Academy into a real life entity that can start delivering the required training. There is a final assessment made at the end of the business planning stage to verify that each NSA has a realistic plan for successful operations.
5. Sector Skills Councils are employer-led strategic bodies set up by Government to help raise business performance, meet skill needs and shape relevant learning supply within a given sector of the economy. Each one represents a sector with a workforce of at least 500,000. There are now 25 Sector Skills Councils covering around 85% of the UK workforce. They have a key role in National Skills Academies in pulling together bids and business plans, co-ordinating employer sponsorship, and working on curriculum content and liaison with learning providers.

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