Patricia Hewitt said it would mean exploring all the possible funding sources, including Regional Development Agencies, other Government Departments, and the Research Councils, as well as DTI, to find the support needed. She stressed it would leverage matching investment from the industry and would need their full co-operation to achieve.

Patricia Hewitt said: "The aerospace industry has traditionally enjoyed strong Government support. We have always worked closely together, and the industry is fully entitled to expect that to continue in future."

As an example of this support, Patricia Hewitt announced �234,000 of DTI funding to boost skills in the sector. The funding will back a year long project and will be matched by the partners to total �597,800.

"Two of our strengths in Britain are our workforce and our trade unions.

"Earlier this year, Amicus and the Society of British Aerospace Companies won one of the first Partnership Fund awards, which has enabled them to research human resource practices in the aerospace industry in other countries.

"I am delighted to announce that, building on that success, DTI has now awarded Amicus and SBAC a further grant."

The DTI grant will be used to support a two year programme of national and regional learning and implementation events which will start early in 2004. Regional workshops and seven learning sets, will bring managers and employee representatives together and support the development of change management strategies.

Dr Sally Howes, Director General of the SBAC said: "Previous research commissioned by the Society of British Aerospace Companies concluded that 56% of UK Aerospace companies were at least half way to being considered as High Performing Work Organisations, having adopted complementary sets of modern working practices that are shown to correlate with increased value-added per employee, faster innovation, higher investment in human capital and greater sales per employee. The rapid and wider uptake of HPWO throughout the UK Aerospace Industry is critical to sustain its global competitive position.

John Wall, Amicus' National Secretary for the aerospace industry, said: "Amicus is participating in the aerospace partnership fund because we understand the vital importance of involving our workforce members in company decisions. The process in good for business too. An audit carried out by the Society of British Aerospace Companies revealed that those that fully involve employees in decision making using high performance workplace techniques increase their profits by up to 141%."

The project is funded from the DTI's Partnership Fund and will help implement the AeIGT's plan to boost skills in the sector.

The implementation plan highlights:
* the need for systematic and continuous productivity improvements;
* the need for a sustained level of investment in applied research and demonstration;
* the importance of delivering on the Government's Defence Industrial Policy -- to make sure Government procurements support the wider manufacturing strategy; and
* the need for research grants to ensure that new technologies being developed have a green dimension.

The Aerospace Innovation and Growth Team (AeIGT) is one of a series of teams which the DTI has set up following the March 2001 White Paper on Enterprise, Skills and Innovation, Opportunity for all in a world of change. They are joint Government/industry bodies to identify key issues that will help their relevant industry respond to the competitive challenges it will face. The aerospace industry in the UK employs 117,000 people directly and 325,000 people indirectly.

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