Skills schooling

Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) at Warwick University and the National Skills Academy have signed an agreement to collaborate in providing better skills training to the UK’s manufacturing industry.

The agreement will give the National Skills Academy access to the knowledge gained from WMG’s £72m Premium Automotive Research and Development Programme.

The programme saw Jaguar Land Rover work with WMG to help car-manufacturer suppliers in the West Midlands develop their understanding of how to make themselves more competitive in the global market.

According to WMG, the initiative helped Jaguar save about £4m when introducing its XF model to market.

Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya, founder and director of WMG, said: ‘By working with the Skills Academy we aim to establish a major national agency that shares its collective thinking with the sector, using each other’s networks to disseminate far and wide.

‘We will also provide a place to demonstrate best practice in work-based learning for training practitioners and look to cascade best practice throughout SMEs in manufacturing – which currently accounts for 90 per cent of the industry.

‘This is great news for the West Midlands and manufacturing throughout the UK.’

The Skills Academy operates a systems-based approach known as Learning Engine.

This allows companies to link their training to business objectives in order to provide a measurable return.

Initial figures from the Skills Academy show a 6:1 return on investment in learning.

Bob Gibbon, managing director of the Skills Academy, said: ‘WMG is part of a top university and is an acknowledged world class organisation with almost 30 years of experience of adding value to the manufacturing industry.

‘WMG’s values match those of the National Skills Academy for manufacturing, which is a centre of innovation and excellence dedicated to raising standards of skills and work-based learning to help enhance UK manufacturing’s global competitiveness.’