Skills supremo to host Process Engineering Live conference session
20 Jan 2009
At the conference, Woolf will give delegates top-level guidance and advice on how their companies can benefit from new government skills and training initiatives. This includes a £50-million fund for training in the process industries to improve the inflow of people via apprenticeships and vocational routes, which is currently insufficient to meet replacement demand, especially in core processing and technician roles.
“Cogent research suggests around 120,000 people in the Cogent Sector would benefit from level 2 qualifications and a further 50,000 from level 3 qualifications – so there’s tremendous potential to set many more people on the road to continuous learning,” said Woolf, who previously held senior engineering and management roles at companies including BP, ICI and Hays Chemicals.
Speakers joining Woolf at the People and Skills session will include Cogent's Dr Brian Murphy and John Holton, ex-ICI executive and polymer industry industrialist, who will focus on issues including the process skills academy and training Gold Standard. The other high profile presenter is John Holland, training manager at United Biscuits, who will highlight how to combine business and training goals.
The Process Engineering Live conference, which is free to exhibition visitors, is divided into four distinct sessions over the two days, making it easy for delegates to maximise their time at an event that provides a new focal point for the process sector. The other half-day sessions are: Process improvement; Asset management; Energy and the environment; Each comprises four 30-minute presentations followed by a Q&A discussion.
Amy Elliott Peace from the chemical cluster support organisation Chemicals Northwest kicks-off the Process improvement session on day 1 at 10.20am with a plant improvement forum. She is followed later in the morning by the PICME client services manager, Sarah Grindrod, who will highlight improvement and efficiency opportunities for process operators.
Among the Asset Management session presenters will be Alan Laird from the Woodhouse Partnership, who will explain how businesses can benefit from good management of their assets, while Tony Alexander, a Honeywell technical consultant will discuss the application of new technologies such as wireless in this field.
Speakers at the Energy and the environment session include the MCERTS specialist from the Environment Agency, Paul Wiggins, and Andy Clegg from Industrial Systems & Control, who will explain how to introduce an energy efficiency programme.
