Black Country skills initiative seeks new board members

A BLACK Country skills initiative is bidding to recruit experienced business figures to serve on its board. The Black Country Skills Factory project has been established to improve skills levels in the High Value Manufacturing sector and to increase the pipeline of suitably skilled staff to support the area’s manufacturing businesses.

The BCSF said the board would comprise senior people and be employer-led with five private sector places, of which one will be the chair and at least two will be from SMEs. The chair will be elected annually.

It said it was looking for a range of people, experienced in the sector who would be able to make an active contribution to the work of the Skills Factory and liaise with firms to assess their needs.

“The Skills Factory will be an employer-led education and training collaboration and will meet the needs of both large and small employers. The aspiration is to change fundamentally the relationship between employers and education training providers, to develop a networked approach to skills delivery that is needs driven by industrial demand for skills. Training and education curricula will be co-developed and co-delivered using shared facilities and industrial trainers,” said the BCSF in its recruitment letter.

“The result will be individuals with the appropriate skills and aspirations to meet the current and future needs of a highly technical industry. It will enable the sub-region to build on a long tradition of engineering excellence and an existing cluster of HVM companies, take advantage of current growth opportunities in the HVM sector and future-proof the skills base of a workforce faced with high levels of retirement of experienced workers within the next decade.”

Applications of interest should be addressed to BCSF director Colin Parker at colin_parker@blackcountryconsortium.co.uk

The closing date for expressions of interest is Monday March 25.