Industry Overview

For decades we have heard talk of the so-called ‘paperless society’ as the gradual transition from a print-based civilisation to a computer-based one takes place and digital media takes over. But there is more to paper than meets the eye!

Broadly speaking, the industry can be broken down into four areas: Paper Making; Recovered Paper; Corrugated and Tissue Grade.

The UK Paper industry is one on the most forward thinking in the areas of recycling, energy conservation and the environment and is in fact the UK’s most successful recycler!

The Paper industry comprises just over 3,000 UK workplaces, employing around 77,000 employees.

Almost 85% of the industry employs fewer than 50 employees; just over 60% employing less than 10.

This industry has its largest presence in the North West of England and Yorkshire and Humberside with more than 85% of the total workforce is based in England.

Proskills works with employers from the Paper Industry to help businesses improve their productivity and competitiveness through skills training. Extensive research and comprehensive employer consultation has identified a need to upskill current and future workforces to enable businesses in this industry to address the challenges they currently face. In particular as the current economic climate forces many businesses to make staff cut backs, there is an increasing need for the remaining workforce to multi-skill.

Skills training is required to help business address the following:

  • Skills shortages are particularly prevalent among front line staff, technical staff as well at managerial and supervisory level
  • To help businesses ride the storm of the current economic climate and credit crunch, particularly with respect to a drop in demand for products
  • The need to meet constantly changing consumer demands and preferences
  • To support legislation compliance on Health and Safety as well as Environmental Management
  • To improve efficiencies by tightening up processes to tackle the issue of rising energy costs and the need for more energy-efficient machinery and processes
  • To drive business performance improvements to increase national and global competitiveness
  • To keep up with changes in processes and technical technology
  • Public misconception that ‘paper destroys forests’
  • Proliferation of electronic media