On The Brink of Skills Disaster

The loss of ProSkills as our lead for qualification development in the timber sector earlier this year left the sector with a vacuum.

I’m pleased to say that industry has stepped in and, through the Confederation of Timber Industries (CTI) and the British Woodworking Federation (BWF) leading the CTI’s work on skills, we are continuing to push on this agenda. That agenda is achieving a fully qualified and competent workforce by encouraging new blood into the industry, career pathways through apprenticeships and qualifications and constant skills renewal.

ProSkills’ Wood Industry Board, which was made up of employers from across the timber supply chain, has now been subsumed into the CTI and met on September 29 in London. It was a chance to review our mission, which solidified the industry’s agenda. But it’s also a chance to seize the moment, as, thanks to a seismic policy development, the time for action is now.

In England, we are set to lose the current Apprenticeship Framework for timber in December 2016, resulting in no apprentices and no funding to support their training.

Following in May 2017 is the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy for employers across the UK, which will see employers with a payroll of £3m+ paying a levy of 0.5%, for use exclusively on apprenticeship training through vouchers in England. The Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish administrations are still to decide how (or indeed if) the funds raised by the levy will be distributed back to employers. Those under the threshold will have to start contributing 10% to apprenticeship delivery costs if they follow England.

Here, the introduction of Apprenticeship ‘Standards’ (often called Trailblazers) will also replace all current Apprenticeship ‘Frameworks’ by 2020 anyway. These must be championed by a group of at least 10 employers but need more than this to make government take notice. Changes in funding bands for colleges and training providers are also set to make it difficult to compete with other sectors for college space, particularly for the timber industry’s expensive apprenticeships. So we’re asking government for a delay in the Apprenticeship Levy introduction and a temporary extension of the current Apprenticeship Framework, until we have a chance to create the new employer-led Apprenticeship Standards. And here’s your call to arms! Write to your MP (using a handy template from each of the CTI’s federation members) with the asks above and get involved with writing your new apprenticeships. If you shape it, you get the skills you want. Whether you’re an importer, sawmiller, trader, merchant or joiner, if you don’t get involved now, we’ll lose our ability to train the next generation.

BWF and the other CTI members are working hard to sustain our training provision, encourage fresh blood and give access to continuous learning. The measure of our success will be employers shouting in a unified voice.