Proskills 'disappointed' as bid for NSA print scheme deferred

Proskills is appealing for a second chance to amend its bid to run a National Skills Academy (NSA) training academy after its inital bid was deferred by the NSA.

The sector skills council failed to make the fourth round of the government-run NSA's qualification process, despite having won £62m from the government to put towards training initiatives.

Proskills will now work with the Learning Skills Council and the NSA to revive its bid with the hope of progressing to the next stage.

Alan Barker, policy adviser for National Skills Academy, said: "Proskills can still make another approach and we would expect one by early next year."

Proskills' Terry Watts said: "I'm very disappointed by the result because I thought we'd done enough to get through. We are still working with the NSA to find out a way we can get in. We need to work more on our implementation plan and I hope to hear something [from the NSA] in the next month."

The bid met criticism from within the industry with Mark Snee, managing director of Technoprint and member of the Proskills committee, criticising its "lack of vision".

He added: "There will have to be some serious dialogue at Proskills. These projects are funded with money from the government so I think the economic conditions likely affected the decision."

The NSA scheme would provide a network of regional partners to help meet the training needs of the manufacturing industry and set new standards.

The winning bidder would get funding from the LSC in the region of £5m, for the first three years. After that, the project would be expected to finance itself. There are currently 10 such projects across a variety of sectors.

In a separate event, the government last month awarded Proskills a £62m training fund for the process and manufacturing sector as part of a three-year deal.

This would allow the funding of second level two and three qualifications for the first time.

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