The skills council for the nuclear, oil and gas and chemicals sectors will push ahead with a skills passport scheme, despite the failings of similar initiatives.
Cogent is to launch a pilot scheme in June with a target of issuing 2,000 passports to employees in the sector by the end of the year.
Passports provide details of industry-specific training and qualifications and, if successful, will be rolled out nationwide.
The skills council anticipates that about 40,000 passports will be issued by 2012.
Tricia Austin, head of product development at Cogent, said: “We are confident of the success of the passport scheme because it has been developed at the request of nuclear employers.”
The danger of opting for skills passport schemes has been highlighted by the failure of a Driver’s Skills Passport initiative that “withered on the vine”, according to the industry’s trade body.
The retail sector skills council told Personnel Today last year that its passport scheme had a poor take-up.
Skills broker sees government targets as irrelevant
Mandatory skills training is back in the spotlight after a leading skills broker admitted he was unconcerned about government targets.
Train to Gain’s free skills brokerage service is crucial to the government’s bid to meet the Leitch Reviewtarget of boosting the number of adults with basic skills.
But Rhys Madoc, large employer unit manager at the London Brokerage Consortium, said: “Train to Gain is driven by demand from employers, and brokers need to act 100% in the interest of the employer. We are not here to drive government targets.”
