Energy & Utility Skills' boss to step down after a decade at the helm
Tim Balcon, Chief Executive of Energy & Utility Skills today announced he will step down from 1st April 2012.
His decision to leave at the end of this financial year comes as he marks his tenth year leading EU Skills, an organisation he was instrumental in establishing as the Sector Skills Council for the energy and utilities sector.
Tim, aged 47, joined EU Skills in 2003 and has worked to ensure it is now considered one of the top performing Sector Skills Councils.
During his tenure, the company has worked to address the skills' shortage within the energy and utilities sector and many programmes have been developed to tackle the issue of an ageing workforce and the need to assist employers in up-skilling workers for the gas, power, waste management and water industries. His forward thinking and drive to ensure skills are at the heart of everything that employers do has been notable in the recent successes of EU Skills.
Our Ambition: Energy programme ensured that 2,060 long term unemployed people were given a life line with a career in the gas industry, a totally unique approach that filled a latent skills gap. This initiative won a prestigious National Training Award in 2004.
Taking the success of the Ambition: Energy programme, EU Skills has up skilled 1,658 women in the industry through the national Women into Work initiative.
As part of the initial concept of the EU Skills licence to operate as a Sector Skills Council, we committed to provide a register for skills competency and training of those employees across the energy and utilities sector. From a small database this has grown considerably over the last 10 years to become a comprehensive skills platform holding details of 125,000 employees within our industries, with over ¼ million registered skills.
He has established a reputation for helping individuals realise their own potential with his passion for the role and under his leadership and it is through this that EU Skills won the statue of an 'Outstanding Sector Skills Council' in 2009.
Since 2009 EU Skills has continued to enjoy a number of notable successes including the securing of £3.6m of funding through the Employer Investment Fund and a further lucrative grant from the Growth and Innovation Fund to develop its employer-endorsed Talent Bank initiative.
12 months ago Tim was appointed on to the Board of Ofqual along with ten other new members to work under the Apprenticeships, Schools, Children and Learning Act 2009 as an independent regulator of general and vocational qualifications in England and Northern Ireland.
Commenting on his decision to stand down from his post with EU Skills.
He said: "After 10 of the most fantastic and exhilarating years with EU Skills I feel it is right that I hand over the baton to someone who can take EU Skills forward.
"The future for EU Skills looks absolutely fantastic with Talent Bank, the four Employer Investment Fund projects, the National Skills Academy for Power - not to mention a fantastic portfolio of products that underpin our activities. All of this means I am able to leave an organisation at the top of the tree."
Jack Carnell, Chair of EU Skills commented:
"It has been my privilege and pleasure to have worked with Tim over the past 3 years. He has been an inspiration to EU Skills and I wish him every success in his future career."
Tim, a keen musician and sportsman, will remain with Energy & Utility Skills through to the end of this financial year and will be assisting the board with the recruitment of a new Chief Executive.
Source: Energy & Utility Skills
