Cogent is the Sector Skills Council for the chemical, nuclear, oil and gas, petroleum and polymer industries.

The sector is currently comprised of 805,700 employees in around 19,000 organisations, most of which have fewer than 10 employees.

The Cogent workforce is dominated by full-time employment (86%) which is projected to decline by 3% over the next 10 years.  Part-time employment is predicted to increase and self-employment decrease. 

Vacancies are predominantly for: process plant and machine operatives; associate professional and technical workers; and sales and customer service staff.

High concentrations of employment in the sector are based in the South East, North West, East Midlands and Scotland and the East of England.

The occupational profile of the sector is very varied by industry with significant numbers of professionals employed within the nuclear industry (38%) and the oil and gas industry (21%).

There is an under-representation of women and people from ethnic minority groups in most industries within the Cogent sector, 27% female and 5% non-white.  With an ageing demographic profile there is a need to attract younger people into the workforce.

There is no data available on numbers employed in the sector with a disability.

The qualification profile of the workforce within the Cogent sector is striking as there is a higher proportion of the workforce qualified to Level 2 than Level 3.  Current activities in the industries to improve their competitiveness in the international arena mean that the workforce needs to be upskilled.

Employers currently prefer to recruit experienced workers, but also look to recruit good generalist engineers and scientists and provide specialist training in-house.

Research on the sector is focused on:

• employment in the sector
• the role of unions
• UK employees working overseas
• qualifications in the sector