The National Skills Academy for Process Industries has recently welcomed Tom Preece to head up its new composites division. 

Tom was instrumental in writing the bid that saw the Academy win the extension to its remit of improving skills in the process industries. Appointed in April Tom comes from previous roles in skills and training. Most recently he was at the National Skills Academy for Manufacturing where he held the posts of East Midlands Regional Manager and subsequently Head of Finance and Admin. Prior to this Tom's early career was as an accountant, having graduated in Economics. He completed his MBA in 2001 and ran his own management consultancy for a number of years. 

Tom will be working under the banner of the Composites Skills Alliance, a partnership between the National Skills Academy for Process Industries and Semta, the sector skills council for science, engineering and manufacturing technologies.  His ambition is to increase the skills and competence of UK composites businesses, predominantly in aerospace, automotive, construction and wind energy.

The Composites Skills Alliance will ensure that the network of providers maintains the necessary provision to meet the needs of emerging technologies and market growth. Tom comments "We are unique in that we are licensed by the Government and led by employers, to deliver a national, co-coordinated training and skills service through our network of quality assured providers within the composites arena"

For composites, a sector with a turnover of around £1.5bn and recent annual growth of 15% for carbon fibre composites, the Alliance can support growth in low carbon technologies and 'light weighting' of major structures such as wind-turbine blades and aircraft wings. Employing over 40,000 people, composites is seen as an important emerging technology in the UK  but one that has only a limited number of quality assured training providers. 

The key role of the Alliance is to raise the quality of composites training as well as improving the skills of the existing manufacturing workforce with composites-specific skills. This includes developing and implementing new apprenticeship frameworks that will deliver more advanced training.