Scottish Employer Groups

As an employer-led organisation, Proskills works very closely with employers from across the process and manufacturing sector in Scotland. In Scotland this is achieved through the Scottish Employer Groups for the Extractives and Building Products Industries and Scottish Furniture Industry Board. In addition, employer engagement is carried out through intermediaries such as trade associations for the Print, and Glass industries.

The Scottish Employer Groups helps set the strategic direction for Proskills. Made up of employers in the main and supported by representatives from employer bodies, trade unions as well as training providers, universities and technical institutions, it is their task is to ensure that the objectives and solutions developed by Proskills the Sector Skills Council remain aligned to the needs of this nation.

Without the support of employers and other stakeholders these groups cannot fulfil their remit. It is therefore critical to their success that more employers from the Scotland faction of the process and manufacturing sector get involved. To date we have a membership of over 28 employers on the Scottish Employer Groups that come from a range of different sized businesses across the 8 industries represented by Proskills. In real terms, they only represent a small fraction of the total number of companies operating in Scotland. To ensure a more complete coverage and ever more influential input, we need more employers to come forward and work with us.

Proskills Nation Lead:

To coordinate employer involvement as well as operational and strategic engagement, each Nation has its own Lead within Proskills. If you would like to get involved in shaping the future of your industry in Scotland, contact us

Current Board Membership includes:

Scottish Extractives and Mineral Processing Group

Names Organisations
Bird, Richard British Aggregates Association
Bauer, Edwin Patersons Quarries
Booth Isabel Cemex
Brooks Peter QEd Consulting
Cadden, Wendy Tarmac Ltd
Crawshaw, Graham MPQC
McDonald, Scott Ennstone Thistle Ltd
Mitchell, Billy Scottish Enterprise
Morrow, Colin Barr
Oswald, Willie Ennstone Thistle
Paterson, Tom Patersons of Greenoakhill Ltd
Sheridan, John Quarry Products Association
Tallis, Maureen Aggregate industries
Thacker, Phil Geddes Group
Watts, Terry Proskills UK
Yeoman, Paul Hanson

Current focus of Scottish Employer Groups includes:

  • Establish strategic issues facing the industry across the 4 nations relating to productivity, skills, qualifications and training provision
  • Identify priority delivery areas and make recommendations to the Proskills Main Board and the Academy Board
  • Review and monitor current strategy and activity taking place within the industry and provide input to both the Sector Skills Council and the Academy to inform future activity and developments
  • Establish programs to promote careers in the industry and foster links between schools, employers and FE establishments
  • Act as Proskills ambassadors for your industry to encourage more employers to commit to training
  • Development of a virtual employer network to engage with the widest footprint
    Implementation of the Sector Skills Agreement Action Plan for Scotland
  • Delivery of the Construction Skills Action Plan for Scotland
  • Delivery of a PrintIT! Scotland programme to attract young people into the printing industry
  • Implementation of the Sector Qualifications Strategy for Scotland
  • Delivery of the Scottish Action Plan developed by the Sector Skills Alliance