Solutions to fix construction skills
The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) has released a report titled, ‘Skills to Build: Fixing Britain’s construction workforce crisis.’ After speaking to several organizations and having roundtables to garner a wide understanding of the sectors’ perspectives and needs, they have proposed twenty six recommendations that will fix the issues underpinning the skills crisis.
Richard Beresford, Chief Executive of the National Federation of Builders (NFB), said: “The CSJ report is a must read for those who want to learn about the challenges and solutions to fix the construction skills crisis. It explores the journey from the perspective of the learner, employer and educator, and does not simply propose that the only solution is more funding.”
‘Skills to Build’ is written in two parts, the first focusing on the construction industry and the second on education and training. Each part has five sections, which introduce the key elements of the review.
Some of the best recommendations for builders include:
Ensuring the planning process enables projects to begin more quickly, so that workforce planning is more stable and sustainable
Support employers by implementing a cross-government review of construction industry regulations.
CITB reform
Embedding high quality employability skills and experiences within secondary education
Pilot a regional construction work experience scheme
Tackle the shortage of construction teachers in Further Education (FE), for example, increasing bursaries for construction, planning and the built environment
Reform benefit rules to incentivise participation in vocational training and work in shortage occupations
Rico Wojtulewicz, Head of Policy and Market Insight and the NFB, said:
“The CSJ have broken the mould when discussing the construction skills crisis. Instead of focussing purely on access to learning, they have understood that learners need teachers with strong industry experience to develop their skills, employers to take them on, and an industry which has a pipeline of work to sustain career progression.
“What firms have access to a pipeline of future work is also important. 8 in 10 construction apprentices are trained by SMEs, despite those firms struggling with work pipelines and project certainty for almost two decades. This is the main reason why the construction skills crisis continues to worsen.
“The right way to fix the skills crisis is, therefore, to unblock work pipelines for SMEs. When they had a fuller pipeline, building 40% of homes in the 1980s, they trained more bricklayers and carpenters per year than all construction apprentices today, where they build just 9% of homes.”
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