ASL0067

 

Written evidence submitted by BSW Timber

 

About us

BSW Timber is a privately-owned business that was founded in 1848. It now is the UK’s largest integrated forestry business in the UK and ranks in the top 20 sawmillers in Europe.  Our headquarters are in the Scottish Borders town of Earlston. We employ over 1,200 people across our seven sawmills in the UK. Since acquiring Tilhill Forestry in 2015, we also have regional offices providing woodland and land management services, covering all parts of the UK. We have recently acquired Wales-based Maelor Forest Nurseries to ensure we are at the forefront of research and innovation in tree stock, an essential ingredient for success at a time when we are faced with a climate crisis.

 

BSW Timber’s current turnover is over £300 million, and it is responsible for the production of over 30% of the UK’s softwood output. Our sawn timber products are mostly used for construction, pallet, packaging, DIY, fencing and gardens, while the co-products are also used for paper, panel board and energy markets.

 

As a rural business, being part of and contributing to the local community is an essential part of how BSW Timber operates. We are committed to providing good jobs and training opportunities that would otherwise not be readily available in rural areas. These areas are very vulnerable to economic turmoil and often end up being “left behind” while investment and policy making focus on more “glamorous” sectors. In rural areas, replacing any lost job costs three times as much as in cities and towns, rural businesses therefore play a vital part in these communities. As it is very challenging to find potential employees with the right skill set for the sector or to attract skilled employees from urban centres, investing in apprenticeships and lifelong training is an integral part of our business. We currently employ 28 apprentices, ranging from entry-level to degree apprenticeships, who are a force for innovation within the business.

 

 

Terms of reference

 

  1. What are the benefits of adult skills and lifelong learning (ASALL) for productivity and upskilling the workforce?

 

    1. For niche sectors, ASALL, in particular through internal programmes, is the only way to provide the workforce with the necessary skills.
    2. BSW Timber, together with many other companies in the sector, has been offering skills training and lifelong learning for decades.
    3. ASALL not only improves the economic performance of a business, but also creates a happier work environment, with employee wellbeing at its centre and resulting in high staff retention rates.
    4. Businesses need to lead on cross-sector co-operation, but governments play a critical role in facilitating contacts and collaboration on best practice across countries and Industries.

 

  1. Two of the biggest challenges currently facing the UK are the lagging productivity rates and extending innovation to all sectors of the economy. BSW Timber realised a long time ago that the answer lies in providing opportunities to build skills that reinforce what we do today and give us the abilities to take on the challenges of tomorrow. In our experience, ASALL reduces skills shortages, increases productivity and is the foundation of more inclusive economic growth for the rural areas in which we are based.

 

  1. Forestry, like other rural and niche industries, is a sector that generally struggles to find employees with the right skills set, as education provision is geared towards more generic subjects. We therefore had to develop our own skills training programmes to upskill the available workforce, starting a few decades ago when new technologies and bigger scales started transforming the sector into the highly technological business it is today. Vocational education has improved in the last few years, thanks to a greater degree of collaboration between authorities and private sector, but we still find that in-house training in different forms is the best way to move the business forward. Moreover, in-sector knowledge transfer, still pivotal to what we do, increasingly needs to go hand-in-hand with new technological innovations, with a number of tasks becoming automated or requiring complex machinery. We therefore need a very practical approach to training where new recruits work alongside experienced employees to achieve the best practices for the business.

 

  1. In spite of a widespread perception of the sector as old-fashioned and male-dominated, forestry has great potential to deliver important steps to tackle the climate emergency: more, stronger trees need to be planted to increase the timber supply that could power a true low-carbon economy. To achieve this, though, innovation, higher productivity and more skilled workforce are needed. For this reason, ASALL is a critical component of BSW Timber’s strategy for future growth. It plays a vital role to help our business succeed, by bridging the gap between education and industry and bringing new technologies and more effective processes into our work.

 

  1. Many of our staff have worked with us for many years, often joining our business directly from school or college. Some of our employees left education 30 or 40 years ago, and in that time, there have been many changes in the company and the wider sector that required new skills and abilities. We have always ensured that our employees would be able to receive adequate training so that they could grow in the profession and have the ability to perform in a changing environment. More recently, we have started investing in an excellent and varied apprenticeship offering that helps us attract talent from all backgrounds. Through our apprenticeships, we hired the UK’s first and -so far- only female saw technician, an achievement of which we are very proud. Our commitment to ASALL, however, goes beyond apprenticeship provision. Lifelong learning opportunities have helped our workforce build on their existing experience and skills, improving productivity and keeping our business at the cutting edge of our industry. The company has been offering and benefiting from ASALL opportunities for at least the past 40 years. Today we still employ in senior positions staff who built very successful careers on the the training their received 20 or 30 years ago. The investment we make in our staff is the most effective way to show that the company values their work and contribution and that we want all our employees to have access to career development opportunities.

 

  1. The timber industry and forestry as a whole are often thought of as being quite a manual and non-technical type of business when compared with other industries. However, this is very far from reality: modern timber manufacturing mills use advanced technology requiring specialist skills and a well-trained and motivated workforce, while forest and land management increasingly involve specialist knowledge. For example, in many forests we use drones to spray new trees with pest treatment and at all our sawmills we use scan machines to analyse the quality of the wood and collect data that an be used by environment researchers. These changes make lifelong training an absolute necessity, given the fact that many of our employees spend the majority, and in some cases, the entirety of their career within our business and therefore have to quickly adapt.

 

  1. ASALL, however, is not only about formal avenues. It is important that businesses create a genuine culture that values and encourages learning and professional development the company through more informal, creative schemes. We have set up an internal mentor programme where staff are paired with more experienced employees to enable knowledge transfer and build a friendly work environment. This scheme is aimed mostly at our graduate recruits, but we have noticed it is a very valuable professional development tool for more experienced staff, too. We have also established a “BSW Dragons’ Den” scheme that is open to all our employees. The process aims to encourage our staff to show leadership and share their ideas on how different areas of the business can be improved. Each employee that takes part in the Dragons Den competition receives 12 months of training to develop their idea as a business plan, then makes the case for it to a panel of senior staff from all parts of the business. The winner gets funding to implement their idea and also takes home a beautiful wooden dragon (theirs only until the following edition). In addition to the prize, BSW Dragons Den offers great networking opportunities across a wide variety of BSW Group functions allowing a more robust understanding of not just process, but the many different roles involved in making our business tick.

 

  1. As a leading business in a niche sector with very specific skills requirements, the benchmarking of our practices is a crucial part of how we innovate and help our workforce to remain competitive. We work closely with education providers and other industries to identify and evidence good practice and to design and develop new approaches to in-work learning for our people. We work closely with institutes of further education to develop stand-alone training and certification for niche areas of our work. We organise events for our employees at all levels to engage with other industries and compare working and training practices. For example, some of our technicians have visited the JCB plant to observe their in-work training programmes for engineering and we are engaging with a Rolls Royce engineer to improve our monitoring techniques in the workplace. Additionally, 30 of our mid-range managers have held a series of visits to General Motors to gain an understanding of their best practice and knowledge of the latest manufacturing techniques. Our efforts to learn from the best are not limited to the UK. One of our senior technicians trained in Germany, a country that is a global leader in both engineering and sawmilling, while our mill managers often visit equivalent businesses in Europe and North America to be exposed to the latest innovations in the sector. We believe that these exchanges across sectors and across countries are very important to build the businesses of the future, but -even more importantly- to give our employees the opportunity to learn the skills of the future.

 

  1. What are the benefits of ASALL for social justice, health and well-being?

 

 

    1. ASALL is crucial to create a safe work environment with all employees following important health and safety measures and aware of their rights.
    2. A strong ASALL offering ensures that no one is left behind and everyone has a chance to develop their career.
    3. ASALL provision is also a way for companies to attract the best talent.

 

  1. Only through the continual upskilling of the workforce it is possible to create effective productivity in a safe and secure environment and nurture employee satisfaction. As our people are our greatest asset, ASALL ensures we remain leaders in the industry. It also realises, for both in-work learners and their employers, a remarkable return on investment in terms of measurable outcomes, for instance, sustained employment, low loss of expertise and skills through high staff retention, and adequate skills to meet a business’ needs. Lifelong learning ensures that no worker is left behind and they can continue progressing in their careers, independently of their qualifications or level of experience. Through ASALL, our business trains employees to feel safe, secure and well managed, with an understanding that if something goes wrong there is a process to help get things back on track. We invest in continuous mandatory training in all aspects of health and safety and measure every individual’s training and progress. This is how we achieve outstanding results in health and safety while also increasing productivity. Our sawmill in Wales, for example, has just attained 500 consecutive days with no “lost time” incident, an impressive result in a sector that involves heavy machinery and manual work.

 

  1. ASALL is also the means to attract and grow talent in a sector that often struggles to entice new people. In our workforce, there are many examples of individuals who have built very successful careers through our training and skills offering. One of our sawmill managers, who failed to gain the necessary results to go to university, continued his education at a night school where he studied wood science. After gaining employment with BSW Timber, he went on to obtain a degree in Forestry and Wood Science to improve his skills and advance his career.

 

  1. Another sawmill manager joined the BSW management training after a few years in the business, and in a short time, found himself in charge of expanding and restructuring one of the company’s sites. These two cases are proof of BSW Timber’s long-standing record in ASALL provision, as both individuals have been with the company for well over 20 years. They also show that individuals from any background can achieve great results and build a successful career with the right level of support from an employer.

 

  1. Our apprenticeship scheme has won awards for the way we train and link closely to educational facilitators. We have a more extensive range of apprenticeships on offer now than ever before, which allows us to bring 16-year-olds into the business straight from school, a path for many to build a successful career in a well-paid job without the expense of going to university. We now focus on promoting our experiences and successes internally and externally, so that current employees are encouraged to use the opportunities that are available to them. This also makes BSW Timber a lot more visible to potential future employees, enabling us to attract a younger, varied and ambitious workforce.

 

  1. It is a testament to the importance of business-led ASALL offering for the all-round wellbeing of workers that so many of our employees stay with the company for many years and feel they are given the adequate tools to build long, fulfilling careers.

 

  1.                     What role can local authorities/combined authority areas play in ASALL provision?

 

 

    1. Consultation and collaboration between local authorities and businesses is vital to achieve adequate ASALL provision.
    2. Businesses need to Increase their participation in education through apprenticeships, shaping curricula and offering training opportunities.
    3. Devolution can be a force for good to ensure ASALL provision matches the local employment opportunities.

 

  1. With education coordinated at a local level, local authorities play a very important role in ASALL provision, especially in non-urban areas. BSW Timber operates mostly in rural areas, which are faced with many challenges: poverty, unemployment and under-employment, struggling public services (from education to health to transport), loss of population to urban areas, and lack of affordable housing for local people. Forestry and timber production are, in many rural areas, the main source of private-sector employment. Without those local economic anchors, rural economies and communities can easily collapse. It should, therefore, be a priority for local authorities in rural areas to support local businesses to ensure the education and ASALL offering is appropriate to the area, and ensure the long-term health of those essential local employers.

 

  1. At BSW Timber, we maintain good relationships with local authorities, especially on local educational and ASALL needs. In many of the areas where we operate, the forestry sector is one of the main or only employers. It is therefore imperative for both local businesses and the community that people have access to ASALL provision that enables them to make the most of the local job market.

 

  1. In 2018, BSW Timber worked with the local FE college and authorities in North Wales to establish an apprenticeship pathway for forest and land management. This pathway will have its first students in September 2019. This project originated in the company’s struggle to find suitable workforce and in the local community’s reliance on forestry jobs. Realising this opportunity will not only secure good employees for BSW Timber and others in the sector, but will also help to ensure the long-term sustainability of a key local employer, on which a community depends. Without the support of the local authorities, this project would have been impossible and deprived the community of much-needed training opportunities.

 

  1. The drive to further devolution is a source of hope for better, ad-hoc provision of ASALL. For instance, the Borderlands Growth Initiative, which involves Cumbria, Northumberland, the Scottish Borders and Dumfries and Galloway, has already produced the plan for a Centre of Excellence for dairy production in Cumbria. The new Centre is expected to bring investment in facilities and R&D and, as a consequence, better provision of ASALL for the sector. BSW Timber is currently involved in developing a Centre of Excellence for forestry with similar objectives. Projects like these are only made possible by a high level of collaboration between local/combined authorities and businesses on one side and authorities on both sides of the border on the other.

 

  1.                     To what extent is the range, balance and quality of formal and informal ASALL education adequate?

 

    1. To deliver results, ASALL provision needs to be appropriate to the local area, rather than follow a national, "one-size-fits-all" approach.
    2. The economic potential of rural areas is linked to specific sectors and ASALL provision should recognise that.
    3. National and local authorities need to work with businesses to build a system that is flexible and easy to navigate for both ASALL users and companies.

 

  1. The range, balance and quality of formal and informal ASALL education varies between areas in the UK. The devolution of education and skills policy means that businesses like BSW Timber, who are present across the UK, have to put in place three different schemes in England, Wales and Scotland. This situation sometimes has negative consequences. For example, in early 2019, the Welsh Government announced that it will suspend financial support for Welsh apprentices attending English colleges. As local colleges near our Welsh sawmill do not offer forestry courses, we are forced to use institutions based in Herefordshire. The change in regulation might result in our business losing crucial funding for our apprentices and possibly, in the long term, in the reduction of apprenticeships we are able to support. However, thanks to our regular engagement with policy makers and the flexibility shown by them, we are now working with the Welsh Government to find a solution that will allow us to keep growing our apprenticeship scheme.

 

  1. This and the differences in provision from one area to another are complications that can be overcome when businesses work closely with the relevant local authorities and governmental agencies. It is tempting for authorities to concentrate investment on generic skills in a sort of “one-size-fits-all” approach. However, this approach risks leading to the failure to maximise economic opportunities that are unique to certain areas. Forestry and farming are two sectors which can easily be overlooked when local ASALL provision is generic, rather than area-specific, thereby creating a situation in which training provision does not match the opportunities for employment of the area. Consequently, our employees often have to travel very long distances to attend training courses, sometimes in completely different regions, incurring significant additional costs for travel and board.

 

 

  1.                     Who currently participates in and benefits from lifelong learning?

 

    1. ASALL is essential to the personal development of employees and the long-term prospects of businesses, particularly in niche sectors.
    2. ASALL plays a key role in redesigning the country’s economy to be more inclusive and not skewed towards urban centres and the South East.
    3. ASALL should be open to all, no matter what their qualifications or level of experience are.

 

  1. Because of its nature, BSW Timber relies heavily on ASALL to ensure its workforce has the required skills and remains competitive. With increasingly prevalent adoption of new technologies and processes in the sector in the last few decades, the vast majority of our employees have received training of different kinds and different levels. In this sense, everyone benefits from ASALL provisions: the company because its workforce has the appropriate skill set to keep up with innovation, the employees because they can progress their formation and advance their career through learning.

 

  1. This is true of most companies in the forestry sector, but also of other rural industries, first and foremost farming. Even with the hugely positive steps the government has taken to link up education and job market more closely, school curricula and ASALL provision are often too generic to meet the very specific requirements of the rural economy. This is understandable: after all, most of the economy is engaged in services or large-scale manufacturing. However, adequate provision of ASALL that caters to these niche, but important sectors is pivotal to create a more balanced economy that doesn’t only rely on urban centres and big industrial clusters. With prominent challenges like Brexit and climate change, it is imperative that the government supports industries that can sustain “forgotten areas” in the countryside and help build a truly sustainable and inclusive economy. The government’s support doesn’t have to be in the form of subsidies; in our experience, adequate education and ASALL provision are a much more effective way to help businesses thrive in the long term. If the government can work together with businesses to improve and expand skills training opportunities, ASALL becomes a tool to build a fairer, more balanced and inclusive economy.

 

  1. We believe everyone should be able to access ASALL at any point in their careers, as it offers people who have no or insufficient qualifications the chance to expand their career opportunities and also helps them to gain confidence in their abilities and potential. At BSW Timber, we have equally encouraged graduates to undertake more pertinent skills training and more experienced employees to gain the necessary qualifications to be in charge of different parts of the business. It is extremely important that businesses are involved in designing ASALL provision so that they can ensure that as many of their employees as possible have the right opportunities at different stages in their careers.

 

  1.                     What lessons can the UK learn from abroad?

 

    1. The UK should strive to learn from the global leaders in ASALL.
    2. These are the countries that have made ASALL a staple of their economy and the main drive to improve productivity.

 

  1. The UK is catching up with other countries in its pursuit of ASALL, but slowly. Other countries especially the Germans and Scandinavians invest heavily in their future training plans from school to retirement. They more adequately link their needs to school syllabus and invest heavily to offer free and reduced-fee courses. They also make the process of setting-up in-work learning programmes far easier for companies so as to get more people involved.

 

  1. If we are to take anything from abroad it is the following:

 

Conclusion

 

  1. ASALL has played a vital role in forestry for a very long time. It is no doubt the reason why the sector has been able to adapt to a fast-changing world and even find new areas in which it can lead on innovation. In many ways, forestry is about attracting the best people with an interest in the sector and supplying them with the skills they need, there is no wrong or right way into it. And ultimately this is what ASALL should aim to do: ensure that no one is left behind and that there is no wrong school result or career path, as long as an individual has the will to tackle new challenges and the determination to be open to new opportunities.

 

  1. It is inevitable for government to be the main driving force to improve and expand ASALL through the right policies and tax framework. But we believe that business’ role is just as important. Employers need to work closely with policy makers, inform and shape ASALL provision to mirror their requirements, and invest in it.  Perhaps most importantly, though, businesses need to nurture a culture that values adult skills training and lifelong learning as the best way to recognise the worth of the employee, their expertise and contribution.

 

 

August 2019