Skills for Justice: New Year Sees New Skills Partnership for 4.3million UK employees

Friday, 23 December 2011 9:41 AM

A partnership of three leading sector skills councils has successfully bid to develop standards, qualifications and apprenticeships for employers across the UK.

Universal Skills Ltd, a Joint Venture Company made up of Skills for Justice, Skills for Health and the Financial Skills Partnership, will cover a combined workforce of more than 4.3 million employees across the UK, almost one in seven of the total UK workforce.

Universal Skills Ltd will maintain and deliver National Occupational Standards (NOS), apprenticeship frameworks and qualification-related activities across their sectors.

The contract to deliver this set of core services, known as Universal Services, has been awarded by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, and will run from April 2012 to March 2015.

The chief executives of the three partner organisations have worked closely together on the new partnership.

Alan Wood OBE, Chief Executive of Skills for Justice, said: “We are delighted with this announcement.

“The work of Universal Skills will allow us to work in collaboration with employers to deliver NOS and apprenticeships in a way that will make the best possible use of public funding. The alignment of resource and skills will mean better quality services and we will see savings resulting from shared technologies and best practice.”

 John Rogers, Chief Executive of Skills for Health said: “We know that employers across our sectors share common skills issues in relation to workforce need and we are uniquely placedto understand and respond effectively to this. This partnership will enable us to maximise the skills and expertise across our three organisations.”

Liz Field, Chief Executive of the Financial Skills Partnership, said: “Our aim has always been to work in partnership with other stakeholders to enhance skills and job prospects in our sector. Our work under Universal Skills over the next three years will enable us to use our existing industry relationships to extend our reach and ultimately provide benefits to the economy and the British workforce.”

Universal Skills will also work in collaboration with Skills - Third Sector, the registered charity working to make it easier for people who work and volunteer in charities and social enterprises to have the right skills to make a difference to people and their communities, to deliver Universal Services to their employers. This will improve the quality of these services and provide full coverage of third sector employers in a consistent and cost effective way.

The bid by Universal Skills to become a selected provider was supported by employers across the UK. It was put together following extensive research into the needs of workforces in all the sectors covered by the partnership.
 

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• apprentiships
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• workplace