The Memorandum of Understanding aims to boost the long-term sustainability of the UK security sector by increasing the available skilled employee pool for the industry.
In practice, this agreement will facilitate the sharing of information between the two organisations, co-ordination on mutually relevant issues and activities as well as on events of potential interest to the membership of ADS and Skills for Security’s contacts.
ADS is the trade organisation advancing the cause of the UK’s aerospace, defence, security and space industries with Farnborough International Limited as a wholly-owned subsidiary.
The organisation also encompasses the British Aviation Group and was formed from the merger of the Association of Police and Public Security Suppliers, the Defence Manufacturers Association and the Society of British Aerospace Companies in October 2009.
Speaking about the agreement Ian Godden, chairman of ADS, said: “The UK security industry’s long-term success is crucial for the country’s economic recovery given the key role the sector plays in manufacturing and the strong export growth potential that it represents.”
Godden continued: “Having a sufficiently skilled workforce is a major part of the foundations that we need to put in place to ensure that success materialises. Our work with Skills for Security resulting from today’s agreement will help to achieve this aim.”
David Greer, the chief executive of Skills for Security, explained: “Skills for Security welcomes this opportunity to work with ADS and its membership to increase awareness of the role that the private security industry plays today, working in partnership with businesses of all kinds to protect people and property.”
Greer added: “A high standard of training across the different sectors, at both operational and management levels, is vital to ensure that the industry remains equal to the challenges ahead. The experience and knowledge of ADS members will contribute to our development of new training and qualifications.”
UK defence industry voices fears over “thousands more” job losses
On Monday, ADS voiced the concern of the UK defence industry that more job losses will follow those recently announced due to both historical and recent cutbacks in defence spending.
Ahead of a fringe event at the Labour Party Conference that was designed to examine defence and security, ADS warned of a further 20,000 to 30,000 job losses in a sector that supports more than 300,000 jobs and was worth over GB pound 23 billion in 2010 (with GB pound 9.5 billion of that coming from exports last year).
The UK is ranked number one in Europe and second only to the US in the global defence exports market with a 22% overall share.
ADS chairman Ian Godden has this to say on the matter…
“There is real concern in the industry that recent news of potential job losses are only the tip of the iceberg. Defence spending 20 years ago was around 10% of Government spending and 4.5% of gross domestic product, while today it is 5% of Government spending and around 2.3% of GDP. With such cutbacks under Governments that have included all three major parties this is not a party political issue but rather a matter of the national interest that has a profound impact on the capabilities of both our Armed Forces and our industrial base.”
“With defence currently supporting over 300,000 jobs the 10% cut in Government spending is estimated to lead to the loss of between 20,000 and 30,000 highly-skilled jobs in the UK, often in localities where deprivation is already above the national average. In the longer run, this will hit small and medium-sized businesses disproportionately and therefore affect future wealth-creation opportunities across every region of the United Kingdom.”
“The current approach to defence spending causes the country to go in the opposite direction to stated Government policy on rebalancing the economy towards high technology, advanced manufacturing with strong exports and support for SMEs. Defence is 10% of the UK’s manufacturing and engineering base and is a world leading, export-led industry with 3,000 SMEs – more than France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Norway combined.”
“Some, but not all, of these job losses can be mitigated in other sectors, most notably aerospace, a long term high-growth sector that grew in the UK even through the most recent recession. Aerospace is, by far, the most successful of the UK’s manufacturing sectors in terms of exports and the greatest industrial success story that we have.”
“If we are smart as a nation, with Government and industry investment, then we can grow and create more wealth from the long-term opportunities in aerospace to compensate somewhat for the engineering and manufacturing losses in defence. However, we still need to reinvest in the UK’s defence industry to maintain its world leading position and export base. This would prevent it from becoming sub-scale and dragged down to a point where it becomes uncompetitive with all the negative impacts that this will have on our Armed Forces and the economy.”
