Skills for Logistics (SfL) enters its relicensing process this week, and is asking for industry support. The six-month process, which assesses SfL's delivery against government targets and the degree of engagement it has with the logistics industry, culminates with a request for ministerial approval in September.
If SfL fails to be relicensed, it is likely that the training and careers organisation will
either be 'repurposed' - essentially put under new management, which will overhaul its performance - or amalgamated with another sector skills council such as the passenger transport agency GoSkills. Chief executive Dr Mick Jackson, while optimistic that SfL will pass scrutiny, says: "Merging with another sector skills council is the nightmare scenario as far as representation goes."
Skills for Logistics was set up as one of 25 skills councils intended to change the UK's industrial training provision from supplier-led to demand-led. Jackson says SfL has spent the last two years developing the infrastructure to create the Qualifications and Credits Framework (QCF) for logistics and this will be completed in 2010, giving the industry the opportunity to tailor courses for individual needs.
"We have presented our business plan to the National Audit Office and we are already significantly ahead of target for qualifications earned and apprenticeships undertaken," says Jackson.
"Eighteen months ago I would not have been confident perhaps but I now know where we are going."
SfL is asking for formal endorsements from a wide range of logistics trade associations. The UK Warehousing Association (UKWA) is engineering a closer relationship with SfL and Roger Williams, UKWA chief executive, says: "It is not perfect but if it does not achieve relicensing we will be shoved in with another sector and that cannot be good."
Freight Transport Association (FTA) communications director Jo Tanner says: "The logistics sector employs 2.3 million people directly and therefore warrants its own sector skills council, and FTA fully supports its re-licensing.
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