New Skills and Competency Group launched to support process manufacturing companies in the Yorkshire region and beyond.
The new group – which is part of YCF & CATCH – a manufacturing membership organisation based in Stallingbourgh – held its first meeting at Nufarm, Wkye with representatives from member companies throughout the process industries.
The Skills and Competency group was launched last week as a direct response from members for a manufacturer only network in Yorkshire – that builds on the already established group in the Humber – with the remit of best practice sharing, collaborative learning and resources plus competency of the workforce.
With technical roles becoming more difficult to recruit, younger staff difficult to retain and an ageing workforce causing companies to review long term plans, this group will provide peer to peer advice and support to tackle these challenges together.
Steve Foster, MD at Vickers, who attended the launch said “This industry led group is incredibly valuable – to have a platform where we can discuss our processes and procedures, and then listen to how other similar companies approach recruitment, learning and development, enables us to fine tune what we are doing for our most valuable assets –  our employees”
James McIntosh, head of CATCH skills said, “Skills challenges are common across many of our manufacturer member companies, it makes perfect sense to bring like minded individuals together to share the responsibility of educating their workforce, whilst having a group voice to make access to training and experts more accessible for all”
“We discuss best practice across the full spectrum of learning and development from apprentices and graduates to training the MD, which all contributes to a well-trained and well-functioning workforce, which in turn reduces down-time, quality issues and improves staff retention”.
The meeting which is facilitated by James McIntosh at CATCH and Lisa Buck from YCF, aims to meet bi-monthly and will be held at a member manufacturing facility to further knowledge exchange. For information on how to get involved, you can contact Lisa at lisa@ycf.org.uk or lisa.buck@catchuk.org