The timber industry has unanimously backed a move to engage ProSkills as the Sector Skills Council for the timber industry. Through the Norton House Timber Education Group, which encompasses the main representative bodies within the timber sector, the industry has recognised the benefit of working with a larger Sector Skills Council, which already has extensive knowledge of the construction industry. The first step will be the formation of an industry board, which will then oversee a review of the qualifications and standards currently on offer. Action will then be taken to ensure that the timber industry becomes an employer of choice through a series of initiatives, which may include the development of an apprenticeship scheme or the provision of sector-specific or general training programmes. Chairman of the Norton House Group, Keith Fryer, said: ‘Ensuring that the timber industry maintains a pool of well-educated, well-trained personnel is vital to the long term success of the industry. We are grateful for the work that the UK Wood Chain has undertaken to date, but being part of a larger body such as ProSkills will enable the industry to raise the overall level of its training and skills provisions and make the timber industry an attractive choice for potential employees.’ The BWF and the WITForum currently has strong links with ConstructionSkills, the sector skills council for construction, which is also a training board. The WITForum Training Manager, Dave Campbell said, “The move to support ProSkills is not a change of alligence from one SSC to another, but the wood industries are so diverse, it does not neatly fit into any one SSC. Those companies that come under scope of ConstructionSkills will still continue to do so, but our new relationship with Proskills will allow collaboration bewtween the two bodies to see a real coordinated benefit to the BWF’s membership, with a revolution in training.”