Sector Skills Councils

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) are state-sponsored, employer-led organisations that cover specific economic sectors in the United Kingdom. They have four key goals:

• to reduce skills gaps and shortages
• to improve productivity
• to boost the skills of their sector workforces
• to improve learning supply.

SSCs achieve these aims by contributing to the development of National Occupational Standards, the design and approval of Apprenticeship frameworks, brokering Sector Skills Agreements and creating Sector Qualification Strategies.

There are currently twenty five SSCs, covering about 85 per cent of the British workforce. SSCs are licensed by the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, in consultation with Ministers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Sector Skills Development Agency (SSDA) is responsible for overseeing industries that fall outside the SSCs and for funding, supporting and monitoring SSCs.