The first major task for the Employer Forum will be to contribute to the review the National Occupational Standards (NOS), Qualifications and Apprenticeship Frameworks for the plumbing and heating industry.
The Forum will give employers in Northern Ireland an opportunity to feed their views, concerns and issues on skills and training into a consultation process being carried out across the plumbing and heating industry in Scotland and Northern Ireland to ensure that the Occupational Standards and the Qualifications that fallout from the NOS continue to meet the needs of employers and are fit purpose and provide competent individuals.
SNIPEF will shortly be writing to all member employers in Northern Ireland inviting them to participate in this Forum. SNIPEF, with SELECT and BESA, has established a new organisation, Building Engineering Skills Ltd, which it intends will assume responsibility for NOS, Qualifications and Apprenticeship Frameworks for building services, H&V and air conditioning, electrical and plumbing and heating which were previously the responsibility of SummitSkills which ceased as the Sector Skills Council in March 2017.
Over time the Forum will cover most issues affecting employers and their businesses and will be used as a vehicle to enable NI employers to share their views and concerns on any matters affecting their business.
The Forum will also be used by SNIPEF, which will form a small network of forums across Scotland and NI to take technical and commercially interesting events to employers. It is envisaged that the frequency of Forum meetings will be influenced by the agenda at that time but as a minimum there are likely to be two meeting per annum.
For further information about the forum e-mail duncan.wilson@snipef.org
