Cogent: Employers to lead the creation of a new Science Industry Partnership

Science-based companies taking the lead in securing the skills needed in the UK for growth and competitiveness.

UK science-using employers are leading the way on skills through the development of a Science Industry Partnership.

The new Partnership has already signed up around 50 employers: some of the first to become engaged include – GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson, Amgen, MedImmune, Fujifilm Diosynth, Ineos, Victrex, Takeda Cambridge and Pentagon Chemicals. Together these employers are developing a vision of the skills base needed for global success. The Science Industry Partnership will commission innovative skills solutions which will challenge the status quo and ensure the UK has the technicians, scientists and innovators of the future.

To establish the Partnership a range of leading employers from the science-using sector will be submitting a bid into the Government’s Employer Ownership of Skills Pilot (EOP). This £340m competitive fund is investing in a range of pilot proposals from employers who are willing to work together in similar Partnerships and take ownership of skills in their sectors.

GSK Director Malcolm Skingle, who will Chair the Science Industry Partnership said, “If Britain is to remain at the cutting edge of scientific discovery, it’s crucial that we’re able to access the right talent and that we know how to nurture this. This partnership will put employers in the driving seat, allowing us to identify ways of attracting the best young people and in turn securing the essential skill base for a prosperous UK science-based sector.”

The Partnership will focus on the talent needed for the future and places an emphasis on using skills as the vehicle for technology adoption and innovation.

The EOP Pilot reflects the Government’s ambition to have a much more employer-led training and education system. The Science Industry Partnership’s bid into this EOP fund will be fully supported by Cogent.

Consultation so far suggests employers are keen to develop solutions around attracting young people into important and exciting science jobs; increasing and supporting Apprenticeships; developing graduate employability and embedding work placements in degrees, ensuring standards-led training for the current workforce, building masters programmes around strategically important technologies and establishing even stronger collaboration between industry, education and training providers.

SMEs will also benefit from the Science Industry Partnership which is aimed at supporting the skills development so vital to the scientific supply chain and to the innovative small to medium sized companies crucial to the sector’s success.

Joanna Woolf, Cogent CEO added, “we are delighted that so many leading employers are signing up to and championing the Science Industry Partnership. Companies from across the sector who rely on science are expressing a clear appetite to have more influence on the UK skills base, so important for their success.

“Establishing an Industry Partnership provides employers with an unprecedented opportunity to design and commission what they need through a pilot programme.”

Cogent has issued an open invitation to employers to get involved, and interested parties should email julie.plumbley@cogent-ssc.com