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Here is a round up of recent industry news stories about plans for providing training, including on the job apprenticeships and professional qualifications.
Apprenticeships
Skills Minister David Lammy MP today backed a new Industry Task Force set up to double the number of successful construction apprenticeships in England over the next four years.
The Skills Minister attended the inaugural meeting of the Cross-Industry Task Force on Apprenticeship Numbers, an employer-led group formed to identify the perceived barriers to apprenticeship take-up and to tackle the current shortfall in employer vacancies.
Currently less than 10% of construction employers take on apprentices, at a time when the UK is facing a massive demand for skilled workers and needs to recruit an additional 87,600 workers each year for the next five years. In that time 7,500 major new projects (in excess of £1 million) with a total estimated value of nearly £250 billion are projected to start in addition to the ongoing repair and maintenance work and construction projects already in progress.
The Task Force will seek to raise awareness of the business benefits of taking on apprentices as well as the risk to industry of not investing in the workforce of the future.
The Task Force membership will consist of key figures from industry including employers, federation representation, Union officials, Government departments and the Learning and Skills Council. The Task Force will complement the Governments own cross-industry Apprenticeship Ambassadors Network and will be chaired and led by Geoff Lister, President of the Federation of Master Builders and member of the ConstructionSkills Board.
Geoff Lister said; “22% of FMB members train apprentices compared to less than 10% across the construction sector, I’d like to dramatically increase both these figures. I look forward to working with industry employer’s and other colleagues from all sizes of companies and organisations to help provide an employment route for extra Apprentices to help solve the skill needs within the industry.”
Skills Minister David Lammy said: “I call on employers in the construction industry to work with us to ensure that an apprenticeship place is available for everyone who needs one.”
Diploma
The Diploma Employer Champions Network (DECN) will be led by Sir Alan Jones of Toyota. It currently involves 17 leading employers who will encourage even more organisations to back the Diploma, either by voicing their support for the qualification or by getting involved in a practical way; for example, sending staff into schools and colleges to bring learning to life in their area of expertise.
The Diploma, which has been developed by employers for employers, aims to help young people aged 14 to 19 realise their potential and gain knowledge and skills in a ‘real world’ environment. It can be taken alongside GCSEs, A-levels and vocational subjects but it differs from these traditional qualifications as it combines theoretical study with practical learning, aiming to equip students with skills they can apply to the next stage of their development.
The Construction and Built Environment Diploma will be taught from September 2008 to nearly 4,000 young people across England. It has been developed in consultation with industry to ensure it reflects the needs of employers.
Working with it’s Diploma partners ConstructionSkills, the Sector Skills Council for the construction industry, has worked hard since September 2005 to engage employers in the new qualification, and, as well as CB&I and Lovell, it has gained the support of a large number of firms including Wates, Balfour Beatty, G&J Seddon, Kier Group and Bovis Lend Lease.
The new Diploma will require young people to demonstrate numeracy and literacy, but also ability in a number of important practical issues relevant to the construction and built environment sector such as health and safety, sustainability, work based practical learning, and the impact of the built environment on the Community. The Diploma will teach students about professions such as architecture, civil engineering and building services, the regulatory framework, design processes, and the enterprise and management challenges which construction poses.
Speaking at the National Education Business Partnership Network (NEBPN) conference in London, Schools Minister, Jim Knight, said: “Education Business Partnerships across the country currently work with over 200,000 employers who are involved with schools in their area. We urge more employers to come on board; not only to act as advocates for this new qualification, but to ensure that young people are coming out of our education system prepared for employment, with more relevant skills and an understanding of work, which will in turn help improve your business.”
Nick Gooderson, Head of Standards and Qualifications at ConstructionSkills said: “Having the support of a range of employers for the Diplomas is vital to their development and delivery. We’ve already made real progress over the last couple of years in engaging the construction industry in the development of the C&BE Diploma.”
The Diploma has been developed by employers for employers so that young people are better prepared for work.
Professionals
The Construction Industry Council (CIC) launched their Professional Services Survey in December. CIC Chief Executive Graham Watts introduced the event which was was attended by key industry stakeholders.
The UK CPS sector - which includes professions such as engineering, architecture and surveying - currently employs 270,000 people, and requires 12,000 competent new professionals to enter the industry every year to meet demand as major projects such as the Olympics gather speed. Added pressure is being put on the industry because 20% of current CPS professionals could retire in the next 10 years.
Parallel research by CIC revealed that that 70% of Construction Professional Services (CPS) firms believe that a shortage of recruits is the biggest problem facing the £13.9 billion industry. A worrying 74% of CPS firms have found that job applicants are likely to be lacking the necessary technical skills.
Over 50% of all CPS firms anticipate recruitment difficulties over the next year and with student numbers on Built Environment courses having dropped by 28% since 2003/4, the industry is struggling to attract high caliber young professionals into the sector.
The CIC research also found that:
• All CPS firms reported some difficulties in recruitment with between 40% and 53% reporting ‘hard to fill’ vacancies.
• The main cause of recruitment difficulties was a low number of applicants with required skills, resulting in the majority of firms having to increase workload for other staff.
• CPS employers believe that the quality of recruits who are either graduate level, part-qualified members of professional institutions or trained to other levels has declined.
The skills gap is most pronounced in Building Services Engineering firms.
Mark Way, Director of Skills, CIC, commented: “This research demonstrates the value of the contribution made to the UK economy by Professional Services and emphasises the scale of the professional input necessary to support the current levels of UK construction activity. The lack of a whole range of key skills in recruits is of real concern; a problem compounded by a future shortage of potential recruits.”
Useful Websites
www.cskills.org/apprenticeships
www.businesslink.gov.uk/diplomas
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