LATEST NEWS: COGENT GRANTED LICENCE TO OPERATE

Following recommendation by the SSDA Board, the Secretary of State for Education and Skills Charles Clarke signed a five-year licence for Cogent to operate as the Sector Skills Council for the Chemical, Nuclear, Oil and Gas, Petroleum and Polymer Industries.  The licence was presented to John Mumford, Chair of Cogent, by Ivan Lewis MP, Under Secretary of State for Education and Vocational Skills, at a high profile event in London on 2nd March.  For further information, visit: www.cogent-ssc.com.

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Welcome to Cogent Plus!

Cogent Plus is the website dedicated to the proposed creation of a new, fully licensed Sector Skills Council (SSC).  It is also the working name for the proposal itself.

In January 2003, Cogent Trailblazer SSC, the Polymer NTO and the  Nuclear Industry Association (NIA, formerly BNIF) entered into discussions regarding the creation of a wider SSC to cover the Polymer, Oil and Gas Extraction, Petroleum, Chemicals Manufacturing, Nuclear and Radiological industries.

At the end of March, the Sector Skills Development Agency (SSDA) received a joint Expression of Interest (EoI) for a Sector Skills Council based on this wider sector footprint, which was accepted at a SSDA Board meeting on 21st May.

The new SSC then entered a six-month development phase during which Cogent, Polymer NTO and NIA will worked together with SSDA to demonstrate that the proposal is acceptable for licensing.  The final application documents were submitted to SSDA for evaluation on 13th November.  The SSDA will be making recommendations to the Secretary of State for Education and Skills in early February.

In the meantime, a transitional Board has been formed consisting of employer representatives for all the sectors covered by the future SSC.  The members are: 

Les Thomas, Marathon Oil (Oil and Gas Extraction)
Nicola Gordon, Shell (Oil and Gas Extraction)

Gavin Prise, Expro North Sea (Oil and Gas Extraction)

David Gresham, Atofina (Chemicals Manufacturing)

Steve Westhead, Solutia (Chemicals Manufacturing)

John Mumford, BP (Petroleum Industry) - Chair

John Lynn, Chevron Texaco (Petroleum Industry)
Ed Weeks, Alderley (Polymer)
Michael Cross, Rapid Moulding Technologies (Polymer)
Adrian Marks, Serco Assurance (Nuclear)