The Scottish Waste Industry Training, Competency, Health & Safety (SWITCH) Forum works to promote the Scottish resource management industry as an attractive career choice in Scotland. The programme provides leadership by working collaboratively to raise health and safety standards, training, learning and development, and technical competence.

The multi-partnership forum is made up of organisations across all sectors within the resource management industry. This includes Zero Waste Scotland, Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM), Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), Scottish Government, private waste management companies, advisory bodies and local authorities. It was born out of the Scottish Government's Zero Waste Plan in 2010, which tasked Zero Waste Scotland with developing a programme to support continual improvements in health and safety and workforce skills in the resource management sector.

SWITCH developed a Competence Framework Tool for managers, supervisors and team leaders within the resource management sector to assess their staff against a range of specific competences and skills applicable to their job roles.

The Competence Framework has been used by VET providers in Scotland, such as Albion Environmental, as part of their Sustainable Resource Management modern apprenticeship. This apprenticeship provides workplace training to frontline service operatives, collection operatives, site operatives, weighbridge operatives, collection drivers and team leaders.

The benefits this common framework has provided to Albion Environmental clients include:

- The framework has streamlined modern apprenticeship candidates' inductions,

- Career progression planning for apprentices is now more accurate and specific to the individual,

- It helps to simplify expectations for new and inexperienced staff and builds confidence,

- It is now used to assist HR functions in managing performance, evaluations and annual reviews.