Putting skills to good use
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In the two years that Mick Jackson has been at the helm of Skills for Logistics, his feet have hardly touched the ground.
Words: Laura Hailstone / Images: Graham Richardson WITH THE government's cost-cutting axe looming over many public sector departments, the 22 Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) probably feel the need to justify their existence. But after spending an afternoon at Skills for Logistics' (SIL) headquarters in Milton Keynes talking to chief executive Mick Jackson, CM is confident the industry's skills body won't have to sing too loud for its supper.
Successfully steering SfL through a long relicensing phase. restructuring the board and executive team, developing and launching numerous qualifications and training schemes. Jackson has been busy since taking over in May 2008. "When I took over as chief executive there were 24 people on the board, which was too many for an organisation of this size. We've stripped it down and are in the process of rebuilding it. It's sevenstrong now, but the aim is to have a maximum of nine or 10." he says.
SfL has also reorganised the way it consults with the industry by forming a national advisory council (NAC). Its first meeting was held in May with 25 members and there are plans for it to meet twice a year. The aim is to have no more than 40 people on the council.
"I'd always envisioned setting up an NAC because I think it's a better way of doing things rather than having a big board," says Jackson.
The relicensing phase also provided an opportunity to review the set up of SfL's team. "We needed to restructure the organisation around our core processes.We've pushed the decision-making down through the organisation."
This involved switching from six directors to just two, with seven heads and 12 field managers It also saw SE. move from a "research mentality to an intelligence mentality".
Core remit
As an SS(, SfL has three things to do: develop national occupational standards; provide authoritative, labourmarket intelligence for the sector; and raise employer engagement. "The third one is a challenge because there are 194.000 companies in our sector, 84% of which employ 10 people or fewer. We are just a 40-strong team, so to effectively engage with them all is a big task."
Jackson says SfL has been focused on defining exactly what effective engagement means as it's -no good just saying we need to engage, we need to look at different levels of engagement': As part of this, S11. runs its contacts database in the same way a sales team does, using customer relationship management software to monitor and log all communication with logistics firms. "We have 19,000 companies on our database and we probably have regular engagement with 1,000 of them. We have 43 companies that we are actively involved with, that is, they're on our board or they work as an ambassador for us."
On top of this, SfL has 600 companies that make up its geographic employer forums. "We consult with them every quarter on skills development issues such as Driver CPC, low carbon, health and safety; it's a really important contribution to our authoritative voice."
SfL also consults the employer forum members annually on its three-year rolling business plan.
The biggest achievement for SfL over the past 18 months has been the establishment of six regional logistics academy hubs without any government funding. The hubs act as a network of quality-assured training providers, consisting of consortiums of further educa don colleges. universities, private training providers and, in some instances, local employers.
"We started working towards the huband-spoke regional academy system three years ago but.12 months later, narrowly missed out in the funding rounds for the government's National Skills Academy. We didn't want to lose momentum. so we had to find a way to get the hubs off the ground without any government backing."
SfL found a way and now has 70 training providers across the six hubs.
"At the start of the year. we were finally successful in bidding for National Skills Academy status and anticipate having the National Skills Academy up and running in April 2011," says Jackson. The National Academy will sit above the six regional hubs.
Jackson's dream of a generic logistics apprenticeship is also moving closer. "We couldn't do it before because the old qualification framework, a prenticeships had to be in some specific, such as driving goods ap ticeships, storage and warehousing fic office and mail services. But we're able to develop a generic on
Priority sector
The key to getting the apprenti( off the ground is the fact that logis now one of the priority sectors government's new National AF ticeship Service.
"We've never been a priority before, so it's great news. Realisi I'd like to think the logistics appre ship could be available within a But the biggest problem is finding to ask operators what they want the apprenticeship. I could tell my to write an apprenticeship but it deliver what is needed and he ben to our industry."
Jackson is aware that all the we hind the scenes over the past twc may have given the impression th hasn't been doing much.
-Most of the work we've had has been infrastructure work," h "When we started, there were 47 ing and skills councils, each of had a different funding regime ai cause none of them understood tics, they tended to focus their fi on sectors that they did understa "We've done a lot of work behi scenes to try and build a fit-for-pi infrastructure for the qualificatio for the delivery of the training. fs, it has been like ploughing throug dc — doing something fast in this try means, if you're lucky, doing it years, which is frustrating.
-1 can understand why employ frustrated with what they deem lack of progress. but it is finally a ing together now," he concludes.