Skills Academies

National Context

National Skills Academies (NSAs) are employer-driven, world class centres of excellence that will deliver the skills required by the major sectors of the economy.

They will vary in scope and structure according to the needs of employers, but the long term aim is to establish employer-led academies that: 

• deliver high quality training
• provide first class teaching in a modern learning environment
• are centres of innovation and creativity, developing and re-shaping training programmes to meet the sectors’ specific needs
• are flexible, maintaining the closest possible relationships with employers of all sizes
• build networks with a range of other learning providers, sharing best practice and working to the benefit of learners and employers across the training and skills sector.

Visit the National Skills Academy website

Northwest Context

The NWDA is working closely with the first four National Skills Academies to ensure that employers in the Northwest benefit from this innovative initiative.

National Skills Academy for Financial Services
 
The successful bid to create a National Financial Services Skills Academy was organised by the Financial Services Skills Council (FSSC).  The academy opened in November 2006, with an initial three centres in Manchester, Norwich and London.

The aim of the Academy is to provide solutions to some of the long-standing skills problems facing financial services employers. In particular, improving the employability of young people, providing entry-level training of high quality and offerings facilities for retraining and continuing professional development. Employers will decide on the programmes offered, which might include new education and work-based routes to employment or flexible, short programmes. 

National Skills Academy for Food & Drink Manufacturing

The Food and Drink Academy will consist of a UK-wide network of centres of excellence providing training specifically for the food and drink manufacturing and processing industry. It is employer led, based upon their needs and developed with their guidance and assistance. It is demand driven, containing the training programmes required by employers to make the UK food and drink industry internationally competitive and sustainable within the UK economy. It will also become part of the formal education infrastructure, a fourth arm linking schools, higher and further education, private training provision and work-based learning and qualifications.

National Skills Academy for Manufacturing

The National Manufacturing Skills Academy in the Northwest aims to fulfil manufacturing employers' requirements using globally competitive content, trainers and assessors. Initial programmes will be delivered through the workplace using validated providers who have met agreed industry standards. The programmes will focus on raising levels of productivity and competitiveness.

Working through the Northwest's Sector Skills & Productivity Alliances, discussions are under way between partner organisations such as the proposed Aerospace Innovation Centre, Manufacturing Institute, Engineering Employers Federation and the Automotive Academy, to agree how they can work most effectively together to meet the skills needs of manufacturing employers.

National Skills Academy for Construction

The sector skills council for the construction industry, ConstructionSkills, aims to establish the National Skills Academy for Construction as a centre of excellence for work-based learning.  ConstructionSkills has defined the key mission as: ‘the delivery of improved construction projects by enabling individuals to further their development, based on employer needs’.

The National Skills Academy for Construction focuses on:

• High-performing workplaces contributing to the delivery of the construction project to quality, time and cost
• Establishing construction projects as learning and development centres, suited to the conditions of the modern construction industry, for the entire project team and the broader community
• Availability of site-based, relevant, timely and quality-assured training and assessment for the lifetime of the project.