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The Sector Skills Council for the places where we live and work 

asset skills

About Us

Click to download the Asset Skills BrochureRaising workforce skills - download our brochure here.

Our core work

Asset Skills works to improve productivity, efficiency and effectiveness in facilities management, housing, property, planning, cleaning and parking.

We do this by working with employers to ensure their staff have the skills they need to do their work well. We focus on three core activities:

  • Qualifications - We make sure all careers across the footprint are backed by sound occupational standards. These are descriptions of what you need to know and do in a particular job. They form the basis of qualifications such as National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) (SVQs in Scotland) or those run by professional bodies.
  • Employer engagement - This is at the heart of our work. Although licensed by Government, we are employer led with no civil servants on our boards. Our teams work with employers to identify skills gaps and try and find solutions.
  • Labour Market Information - Good research with a practical slant means we can understand better what is happening in terms of markets, working practices and technological change. This helps ensure we have a strategy designed to be of practical help as well as a source of information for employers.

UK wide remit

We are a UK wide organisation with representation and employer boards in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland..

We recognise that to be fully effective, solutions need to be tailored to individual business needs and will vary by country and region.

Asset Skills also runs projects like the Women and Work programme that subsidises training for many. Plus, we lead the alliance of Sector Skills Councils on promoting general workplace or "employability" skills improvement in all industries.

The Leitch Review

In 2006 Lord Leitch published "Prosperity for all in the Global Economy: World Class Skills". It focused on the UK's long term skills needs and set out ambitious goals for 2020.

The report recommended far-reaching reform and said the UK must urgently raise achievements at all levels of skills. Responsibility for achieving this must be shared between Government, employers and individuals.

Prosperity for all in the global economy - world class skills. Leitch Final Report

If you are an employer and would like to help shape the type of training available in your industry, we would like to hear from you. Please contact us on 0845 678 2 888 (local rate call) or email info@assetskills.org