The square root of zero. That’s how Institute of Wood Science (IWSc) director Jim Lumsden described the training available to the UK timber and forest products sector on a nationally co-ordinated basis.

There are excellent training courses around. The IWSc’s own, for example, plus in-house company programmes.

The trouble is, said Mr Lumsden, that these are not linked in a national framework. As a result UK timber industry training is a curate’s egg – good in parts. The consequence of this is that the industry may eventually be left with just pockets of skilled personnel.

“The lack of a national training scheme also means most skills are concentrated in older employees who joined the industry when training was more structured,” said Mr Lumsden. “We haven’t replaced their skills effectively, so what happens when these people retire?”

The other result of the lack of a UK-wide scheme is that the sector doesn’t qualify for funding from government, which likes its training in a package tied with a bow before it stumps up.

The good news is that the IWSc and other members of the UK Wood Chain Group are laying the foundations for a new national training programme.

As part of the exercise, the consultancy TreeLine is “mapping” the industry’s training needs. It will then cross-reference these with existing NVQ and SVQ modules which apply to the sector. So far over 400 of these have been identified, but they’re buried in a raft of different qualifications. The initiative will also look at existing training provision to ensure there’s no duplication or overlap. The goal is a relevant, practical national training scheme backed with education department cash.

Once this has been done though, the industry must still make its training attractive to existing and prospective employees. What’s needed here, concluded the latest meeting of the TTF‘s training committee, are role models; people who’ve benefited from and can enthuse about training.

One way of identifying them, of course, is to put your employees forward for the 2004 TTJ Trainee of the Year Award!