The Construction Leadership Council’s new Skills Plan proposes solutions to short and long-term challenges in construction recruitment in England.
The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) estimates that an extra 225,000 workers will be required across the UK over the next four years.
To tackle this shortage, CLC’s skills plan focuses on four main priorities: culture change, routes into construction and built environment, competence and future skills.
One of the biggest challenges for the construction industry is that not enough people want to work in it. We reported earlier this week that Billington Holdings had to find 80% of its new recruits last year overseas, despite the company's best efforts to engage with schools, colleges and training organisations.
The CLC believes that more young people would consider a career in construction if it had a better image. It also believes the industry would be better if it had a lower proportion of white men in it. It has been trying to change the culture but has so far largely failed, it admits.
“There can be no argument that an area industry needs to improve on is having a workforce that reflects the make-up of communities we work in,” it says. “Diverse teams deliver better results and we are missing out on large parts of the UK’s talent pool at a time when the sector is crying out for resources. Yet despite this, the data shows us that changes in the industry’s demographics over the last few years have been almost too small to measure. This isn’t good enough, and we shouldn’t accept it.
“For that reason, our plans for culture change in 2023 will focus on delivery. Over the last two years we have developed the tools to change our industry – training to create more inclusive workplaces, opening opportunities for work experience and providing an easy one-stop-shop platform for new entrants.”
According to the CLC, 2.7 million people work in the construction industry. So far, approximately 6,000 people have had diversity training in fairness, inclusion and respect – representing 0.2% of the industry.
“We are well on the way to hitting our long-term targets,” the CLC says in its new Industry Skills Plan Update.
As part of the Skills Plan, CLC has developed a range of projects for 2023-24, including:
- the launch of a new competence approach to ensure there is an accepted, accredited definition of competence for all construction and built environment occupations.
- expansion of the new entrant apprenticeship brokerage service and introducing a new apprenticeship mentoring standard to increase apprenticeship starts, continuation and completions.
- a new careers website, the Career Pathway Hub.
- more schools outreach work.
CITB strategy and policy director Adrian Beckingham is co-chair of the CLC’s People & Skills Network. He said: “Construction will be at the forefront of arguably the biggest challenge – supporting the transition to net zero – which makes our industry a career of meaning and value. At the same time, we have a pressing need to attract and support new entrants into the industry.
“This new Skills Plan by CLC will tackle these challenges by creating opportunities to get young people into high-skilled, well-paid jobs, while encouraging workers to adopt modern, green skills across the globe.”
The CLC Industry Skills Plan Update can be downloaded at www.constructionleadershipcouncil.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/CLC-Skills-Plan-2023-24-FINAL.pdf
Got a story? Email news@theconstructionindex.co.uk
