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SummitSkills fails to secure Government funding for the future
Published: January 2012
SummitSkills has declared that its vital work of improving skills and safeguarding standards in building-services engineering will continue — despite not having secured funding from the Employer Investment Fund (EIF). From April 2012, sectors skills councils such as SummitSkills will no longer receive Government funds which, with subscriptions from trade associations, has funded their work in the past. The EIF fund is one of the mechanisms the Government is using to change the way that sector skills councils are funded, and a number of them have missed out on funding. Keith Marshall, chief executive of SummitSkills, says, ‘This is disappointing news for our sector, and we are assessing the impact it will have. We must continue to drive forward the vitally important work of safeguarding standards and addressing skills issues, which the Government has recognised that SummitSkills does effectively by awarding the licence to continue in October 2009. ‘Although our individual bid was unsuccessful, we are pleased that we will be able to continue to equip our sector for environmental technologies after our joint bid through the Green Deal Skills Alliance (together with CITB-ConstructionSkills and Asset Skills) was successful in securing investment to build upon the successful work of the Alliance.’ The Green Deal Skills Alliance has secured £1.4 million from the EIF to help employers take advantage of commercial opportunities around the low-carbon agenda. Keith Marshall adds, ‘Our focus now is on developing a sustainable business model for the future. These changes to the way SummitSkills is funded will not impact until April 2012, but we are already exploring all possibilities for alternative funding in order to continue supporting employers and operatives through these challenging times.’ Related articles: 
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