Summitskills takes training agenda to House of Commons
The challenge of equipping built environmental operatives to design, install and maintain the technology which will reduce the UK’s CO2 emissions was firmly on the agenda at Westminster recently, when SummitSkills hosted an event at the House of Commons.
Attendees at the event, organised together with the Parliamentary Renewable and Sustainable Energy Group (PRASEG), included MPs and Peers from the House of Lords. SummitSkills, the sector skills council for building services engineering (BSE), emphasised during the discussions the vital importance of the sector’s SME installers to the success of the Government’s green agenda, particularly the Green Deal.
Other topics included:
· The important contribution of microgeneration to the UK’s energy security
· Why the take-up of environmental technologies seems to have slowed down
· How to create ‘green apprenticeships’
· What needs to happen in order for all new homes to be built to zero carbon standards by 2016
· The work of the Green Deal Skills Alliance, a partnership of sector skills councils representing employers in the built environment, in raising awareness of the Government’s Green Deal initiative
Keith Marshall OBE (pictured), Chief Executive of SummitSkills, said: “The skilled operatives working in the BSE sector are the people who will actually install much of the equipment that will change the way the UK generates and uses energy in future. It is vital to ensure that these installers are trained, qualified and competent if these installations are to last the 20 years envisaged. This was a perfect opportunity to discuss with those at the heart of Government how the National Skills Academy for Environmental Technologies – which we set-up on behalf of the sector last year – is helping employers to address these skills needs, as well as other issues close to employers’ hearts. I would like to thank PRASEG Chair Alan Whitehead MP for ably chairing the event and the representatives from all three main political parties who attended, especially President of the Micropower Council Baroness Maddock who kindly helped us to launch our National Skills Academy last year.”
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