Welcome

Cogent is the Sector Skills Council (SSC) for the Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals, Oil and Gas, Nuclear, Petroleum and Polymer Industries and is constantly working to push the boundaries of employee up-skilling within composites processing, engineering and manufacturing disciplines. The “Polymer Composite Technologies Program” is one such project that aims to increase the skill and knowledge of key employees within companies utilising composites, by bridging the gap between Academic & Vocational professional development to meet the needs demanded by industry.

We are licensed by the Government to provide employers in our sector with the opportunity for coherent leadership and strategic action to meet their skills needs.

Our key national objectives are to:

  • Reduce the sector’s skills gaps and shortages and anticipate future needs in the Cogent industries
  • Improve productivity and business performance through specific strategic actions, based on our analysis of sectoral priorities
  • Increase opportunities to develop the productivity of the sector’s workforce
  • Improve learning supply, including the development of apprenticeships, higher education and of national occupational standards

    • The Cogent team is project managing the development of the “Polymer Composite Technologies Program” and with partners will be launching the pilot scheme in 2009.

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    The Project will develop a new Programme aimed primarily at skilled and semi-skilled senior operators, team leaders and technicians across all sectors utilising Polymer Composites as its main material for component part, sub-assembled or complete product manufacture. It will be a modular, pre-degree and post ONC/D level of academic development and NVQ level 4 vocational education and training. It is being developed to address the cross sector and cross process technology deficiencies experienced by those individuals within a company, who have a major impact on new product development implementation and the biggest impact on day to day productivity and continuous improvement.

    It is critical that technology and materials advances developed within one particular sector can be examined and if appropriate, transferred smoothly into another e.g. Aerospace and F1 Motorsport into Marine and Construction. It is also essential that newly developed technology and its potential use in existing and new applications, can be acquired readily by the smaller and micro companies, who do not tend to invest in research and development as readily as the larger organisations.

    It is recognised that those employed beneficiaries of this programme, are in there own right perceived as skilled within the limitations of the technology, materials, processing techniques and product applications used within their company, but are not aware of the potential advances currently being made or researched outside their company or processing sector.

    This project aims to address this deficiency.