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Executive summary - The World of Skills

National and International Context

Cogent sector industries add value through skills-intensive products that support the infrastructure of modern society itself - energy, health, transport and materials. But the intellectual property, the generation of new scientific knowledge and, crucially, the skills and innovation to convert this to tomorrow’s solutions to today’s problems, are the core assets that will sustain these UK industries on a global platform.

All Roads lead to Science

From oil to pharmaceuticals, all of the sectors within the Cogent footprint are concerned with using science to add value. Through science and engineering we have unlocked value and functional sophistication from carbon in its various forms, and from non-carbon-based material in the case of the Nuclear sector. From chemical sources we have created pharmaceutical and biotechnological advances with valuable practical applications. It is the in-common skills around chemical transformation, separation science, molecular processing and physical containment that link the Cogent footprint.

Oil connects a significant part of the sector – as it connects a significant part of the world economy - primarily because we are intensively dependent on it both as a source of energy and as a raw material. Through oil, the carbon economy has shaped our civilisation. The majority of oil, 70%, is used for energy and energy fuels (petrochemicals); half of the rest is converted to chemicals, plastics and pharmaceuticals. The knowledge of those working in the Cogent sector will be vital to meeting the world’s challenges relating to carbon, to ensure the future sustainability of our economy

It is knowledge with skilled application and transfer to commercial advantage and wealth creation that has earned the science-using industries in the Cogent sector their strategic platform.

Skills - The Next Industrial Revolution?

Investment in skills is not just a matter of economic prosperity; it also concerns social justice. Skills embody an opportunity for individuals and businesses to improve their prospects, to contribute to improved business performance and national Gross Domestic Product, and to add to the national stock of skills.

The reward of success in this skills challenge is deeper than economic prosperity alone; workforce development opportunity linked to skills qualifications are also about fairness, quality of life and opportunity for all. The price of failure is a second-rate social and economic infrastructure.

The World of Skills – Public Policy Leitch Review

Lord Leitch’s review of Skills in December 2006 set out a clear challenge for the UK economy. To meet this challenge, his recommendations included specific targets to increase skill attainments at all levels, strengthening the employer voice on skills through their SSCs and launching a new ‘pledge’ for employers voluntarily to train more employees at work.

Policy Developments across the UK

Since the Leitch review, there have been key skills policy publications in each of the four nations of the UK:

  • England policy – World Class Skills – (July 2007)
  • Scotland policy – Skills for Scotland - (September 2007)
  • Wales policy – Skills that Work for Wales - (August 2008)
  • Northern Ireland Policy – Success through Skills (February 2006 with update and Progress Report May 2008)

Each acknowledges and has been influenced by Leitch, with the common factor being their clear intentions to focus public funding on getting young people ready for the labour market, on basic skills for existing workers, and on any areas of market failure. In return for this, the government increasingly expect employers and individuals to meet the cost of acquiring intermediate and higher level skills, since these are the levels where clear economic benefits can be seen to accrue directly to the individuals and firms.