The National Skills Academy Process Industries is one of twelve national academies being set up by the Government and employers to provide employers and learners with the skills they need.

One of the biggest challenges employers face is to recruit enough highly-skilled, motivated and ambitious people who compare well with the best in the world.

Many industries are facing skills shortages as the current workforce retires, and there are skills gaps where there are too few people with the right skills to support companies progress.

Overall vision

National Skills Academies (NSA) will play a major part in providing the UK workforce with the knowledge and skills it needs to match the best in the world.

Each academy will do this by building a network of employer-led centres of excellence that will transform the landscape of skills training.

NSA will be synonymous with:

• Excellent training
• Responding to the needs of the employer
• Innovation and creativity
• Leading-edge industry best practice.

The role of an NSA

Each academy will redesign, reshape and add to current training programmes and qualifications in a way which best suits each industry, including developing tailor-made programmes for their industries.

NSA will offer qualifications which have a proven track record with employers.
New qualifications, reflecting gaps in the current system, will also be developed by working with employers from relevant sectors and to a much tighter timetable than is currently possible.

Across industries, all NSA programmes will share a common set of core attributes:

• High-quality, globally competitive training
• First-class teaching in a modern learning environment
• Centres of innovation and creativity, developing and reshaping training programmes to better meet employers' needs
• Flexible methods of delivery, with close relationships with employers of all sizes.

How Academies work

The NSA are being set up and funded by the Government, the Learning and Skills Council, the Sector Skills Development Agency, the Sector Skills Councils, Regional Development Agencies, employers and training providers.

Each NSA is at the apex of a national network of employers, training providers, trade unions and other stakeholders.

Employers, working with their Sector Skills Council and other employer organisations, will shape all aspects of the design of the NSA and the delivery of the training it provides.