New CSJ report sets out plan to tackle construction skills shortage
The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) has released a new report that sets out a solution to tackle the construction skills shortage in Britain.
The report, titled ‘Skills to Build: Fixing Britain’s construction workforce crisis’, builds on conversations with several organisations and a number of roundtables, and proposes twenty six recommendations with the aim of fixing 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 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 has broken the mould when discussing the construction skills crisis. Instead of focusing 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. Eight 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.”
Source: Showhouse
