aerospace
The Skills Academy works
with the large aerospace
businesses including Rolls-
Royce, Airbus, BAE
Systems and Goodrich as
well as smaller companies
in the sector
Century Supply Chains (SC21) programme. This
programme is designed to improve the industry’s global
competitiveness by raising the performance of supply
chains across the sector. It does this by improving the
operational output of companies, developing
relationships that are mutually beneficial and inspiring
collaboration rather than aggressive business tactics
which drive joint approaches to industry problems out
of the sector.
The data collected through the programme provide
an essential way to highlight the skills gap in the sector,
and the fuel the NSAM needs to develop the best quality
training products and services for aerospace employers.
Working closely with SBAC, it is using this information
to develop and ensure the quality delivery of excellent
training for the UK’s aerospace industry. Andy Leather,
director, AeIGT Programmes at SBAC, says: ‘Our work
on the SC21 programme has helped us to understand
what is needed in the sector. We have the experience and
research to point at where the skills gaps are and help
the National Skills Academy for Manufacturing to
generate the training products and services which can
fill them.’
In addition to partnering to identify skills gaps, SBAC
is also putting all the SC21 training programmes under
the NSAM’s scrutiny. This is because the government set
up the Skills Academy both to develop world class
training content and to validate what already exists. By
evaluating what is already out there, the Skills Academy
will highlight examples of excellence and establish a
clear progression route for national manufacturing
skills. This will reduce employer confusion by
identifying and combining the best examples of
excellence in skills services into a single, complete
support package for manufacturing companies. Until
then, it is using its expertise in aerospace to fine-tune
34 MWP november 2007
existing, successful programmes so they reflect what the
employers in each industry need.
One example of the Skills Academy playing this role
is the Lean Leaders Programme - originally developed
for the automotive sector but now being applied to a
range of manufacturing industries thanks to NSAM
input. Lean Leaders is a highly reputable skills
development programme from an exemplar of best
practice in the workplace. It is a tried and tested
programme run for 15 days over a four week period. It
provides first line supervisors, or those identified as
supervisors of the future, with the foundations to
improve organisational performance and productivity
through lean management. It fuses theory and practice,
allowing delegates the chance to put their ideas into
practice through a simulated programme that places
them in charge of a dummy manufacturing plant.
Beyond its work with SBAC, the NSAM is also
working closely with its parent body the Sector Skills
Council for Science, Engineering and Manufacturing
Technologies (Semta). Semta’s Aerospace Sector Skills
Agreement is integral to how organisations like the
Skills Academy should operate in the aerospace sector.
The Agreement not only looks to map out exactly what
skills aerospace employers need their workforce to have,
it also predicts how these skills need to be supplied for
many years to come. These were identified as:
■ Leadership and management
■ Productivity and competitiveness
■ Technical workforce development
■ Manpower, planning and recruitment
These skills needs are the benchmark for the Skills
Academy’s work in the aerospace industry, and will
form its priorities for action in the coming months and
years.
According to Darren Race, Sector Skills Agreement
Implementation Manager at Semta, this is essential for
any national framework for training in the aerospace
sector. He says: ‘The National Skills Academy for
Manufacturing can use the Sector Skills Agreement as
an initial guide for what aerospace employers may need
in the future. We have worked to identify where the
future demand signals will be, and this organisation is
in the perfect position to act on them. We also will be
using these results to identify islands of excellence in
existing aerospace training and look at ways it can be
complemented.’
Moving forward the Skills Academy will continue to
work with the large aerospace businesses including
Rolls-Royce, Airbus, BAE Systems and Goodrich as well
as smaller companies in the sector. Through this it will
work to ensure that its training products are continually
meeting the needs of aerospace employers and the global
business challenges facing this industry. It will identify
best practice in existing training products, finely tune
those that need to be adjusted, and provide a national
standard for training content, advice and delivery based
purely on what industry needs. With its new arsenal of
research, data, industry support and best practice, the
National Skills Academy for Manufacturing is fully
equipped to influence the future prosperity of the UK
aerospace industry by enhancing employer-led skills.
www.manufacturing.nsacademy.co.uk
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