Steel areas will benefit from unique training partnership
Steel areas will benefit from unique training partnership
Keywords Partnering, Steel industry,Training
With redundancies still being made in the steel industry in the UK, because of British Steel's accelerated manpower reduction programme, the downturn in the world economy and the strength of sterling, Britain's steel union, the ISTC, has joined with SteelAction (28 local authorities in steel areas) and MOST Training to launch a unique partnership called Steel Partnership Training (SPT).
SPT's objectives are to train and retrain unemployed steelworkers and those who face redundancy so that they can get new jobs, and upskill existing steelworkers to promote their future job prospects.
SPT's programme is likely to grow to one of the biggest of its kind in the country and will have an impact in all hard-hit steel areas and their wider communities.
At the launch, in the Millbank Centre, London, ISTC General Secretary Elect, Michael Leahy, said that the partnership of union, local authorities and training providers is unique."Already ten fully funded projects have been established", he said, "and soon we will be training and retraining hundreds of steelworkers across the country".
Councillor Roger Stone,Chairman of the SteelAction group of 28 local authorities, said SPT will have an impact on all steel areas in Britain. "Redundancies and small works closures are still happening even though Britain has one of the most productive steel industries in the world. SPT could not have been launched at a better time."
The Government warmly welcomed the unique training partnership, George Mudie, MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Lifelong Learning, told the launch.
Funding has come from the European Union, the British Government, MOST Trust, local authorities, the ISTC and employers.
Tony Myhill, manager of Steel Partnership Training, said: "We're going to work very hard indeed both to keep steelworkers in work and training. At the same time we also aim to retrain them for new jobs if they are made redundant."
For further information contact Steel Partnership Training, 2nd Floor, All Saints Building, Corporation Street, Rotherham S60 1NX. Tel: 01709 374561; Fax: 01709 720145.
