07/05/2025
Health and wellbeing is naturally high on the agenda in healthcare facilities, but what more can be done to ensure fire door safety is being met with competency and not complacency? Alex ...
Pauline Kelly, WITForum Chair and Lead Member for Training
The government have given us some good and bad news on training and skills. We’ve now got access to some additional pots of funding for qualifications and other development, but we’ve also seen funding taken away from ProSkills who have been developing new industry qualifications. It’s going to be a turbulent experience ensuring we get what we need from training, but you can rest assured the BWF and WITForum are fighting the joinery industry’s corner.
ProSkills is the Sector Skills Council (SSC) for Process and Manufacturing and have, over the last year, been developing qualifications for the wood/timber industry, including for joinery. Some excellent progress has been made in 2011 – sawmilling and merchant qualifications are with OFQUAL for approval to be used and in turn attracted skills funding. We have begun development of new qualifications for the joinery industry that promise to provide skills for our members to use as a basis of qualifying their staff and improving their business. We are particularly looking for BWF members who are out of scope with ConstructionSkills to get involved with the development process.
SSCs are funded by government, and we recently heard the news that ProSkills will not get any funding in the latest round of bids. This is a huge disappointment, and as our training manager expressed in his article in December, has invoked fury within the BWF and the wider manufacturing industry, particularly as government continues to talk about the importance of Britain’s manufacturing sector. It is crucial that we continue the qualification development process and we are asking some serious questions of government to understand the rationale and make them reconsider.
We are in a luckier position compared with the other wood trades, with many of our members under the scope of ConstructionSkills. They have secured government funding and they also have the levy to continue investment in skills, and we are ensuring their qualifications are also fit for purpose. ProSkills are looking at alternatives for funding and it is hoped that can adapt their business model to pull on other pots of government funding and also generate their own income. The Wood Industry Board will meet with ProSkills representatives to hear their plans and ensure that industry is getting what we need.
On a more positive note, we have been successful in our bids for funding from ConstructionSkills. In addition for support for the WITForum, we have secured funding from the Qualifying the Workforce fund and we are confident we will gain funding from the Management & Supervisory Development Programme. In practice this funding will deliver:
• On-Site Assessment and Training (OSAT) – getting your workforce qualified in wood machining, bench joinery, health & safety and more, with a bespoke and robust training programme delivered on your premises. We use our funds to support your training, and it could cost you as little as £30 per employee (usual price £1,500). We will be launching our OSAT scheme by the end of January.
• Apprenticeship Promotion and Guidance – providing detailed guidance about all the training, funding and provider options for taking on an apprentice in your business, plus promotion using a range of media options to encourage young and bright people into our industry.
• Estimating E-Learning Package – developing online training that will provide your staff with skills in joinery estimating, providing bespoke joinery-specific estimating skills, not generic material estimating skills.
We’ll be sending more detailed information on these new initiatives shortly. Don’t forget that we already offer a range of bespoke training services tailored for the industry and for your individual company and staff, and we’ll be doing short survey soon asking about your training and what the BWF could do more (or indeed less of) to meet your needs as members.
While the outlook is bleak on many fronts for 2012, but it’s important that we all continue to invest in training to increase our competitiveness and the BWF is offering some fantastic opportunities to access quality training at bargain prices.
