Deconstruction

“We need more people to do the work” is a familiar, and true, refrain from construction commentators when the government announces a new building target. For various reasons, we also need to look beyond the male only workforce, and attract more females to construction, and the new generation entering the workforce each year. But when 76% of women would not want to work in the sector, and 67% of full time students would not want to join the construction, how do we make this crucial sector that regularly contributes 8% of GDP appealing to a vital mainly untapped stream of the available workforce? Construction Deconstructed has some recommendations. Read the full downloadable report here: https://lnkd.in/eU-ePzDv

"The latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures suggest 987,000 16-24-year-olds were not in work, education or training between October and December. "That is 13.4%, or almost one out of every seven people in that age range." Incredible figures issued by the ONS and reported by the BBC demonstrate how important it is to make routes into work clearer and accessible for the next generation of young people, who have already endured a number of obstacles to their development, most notably education during the Covid lockdown years. Within the BBC report, there is the case study of Luke, who at 16 wants to work in construction but is struggling to find apprenticeships. The construction sector will need to find and retain more than 250,000 workers before 2028 so it needs to start engaging with this huge resource of potential. That won't be without difficulty, but a number of organisations and influential people are now starting to join up the dots... lets ensure the £2.1m the CITB will invest in advertising and marketing for the sector focuses on the right demographics. “A key objective for CITB is to inspire and enable diverse and skilled people into construction by increasing new entrants into the industry through various routes. “As part of this, we endeavour to develop new materials and campaigns that showcase construction as an exciting career option."

Eimear Strong is articulating what we have been thinking! Is there a revolution in thought afoot?

Is reform a silver bullet for the skills gap? There’s been a lot of talk about the change needed in training and skills, particularly in the wake of the government’s new Skills England body. The government’s plans to kickstart building are admirable, and the recognition that skilled labour has a huge role to play, but the bigger picture may be being missed somewhat. @Niamh Evans of the The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) nails it in her recent piece for PBC Today & BIM Today: “Bridging the skills gap requires more than setting ambitious targets and leaving industry to fill in the blanks – it demands a realistic appraisal of what the sector can deliver, when it can deliver it and what government support it will need to get there.”   Its our opinion that a big part of the issue is visibility; if we’re not visible to enough people then we can’t recruit them in big enough volumes, and if we don’t recruit people in big enough volumes then we’re not going to have enough people to upskill.   We’re fully behind the sector’s efforts on skills and training, we just want to make sure that we don’t miss the fundamental first step to fixing the skills gap.

Case studies are powerful - they can tell a story in ways that statistics can't, and this one in CIOB People neatly sums up why broadening the sector's appeal is going to be crucial to its success.

There has been a number of positive moves to turbocharge the pipeline of new talent coming into the construction workforce. First off, the government is changing rules around apprenticeships with a view to removing red tape and allowing up to 10,000 apprentices to concentrate on the paid work: https://lnkd.in/ezBR89PN While there is plenty of support in the construction sector for this move, there is acknowledgment that 10,000 apprentices is only a comparatively small number against what the industry has lost in the past few years. In The Construction Index Ltd David Crosthwaite, chief economist at the Building Cost Information Service Limited (BCIS), said:  "If the government is serious about tackling the construction skills shortage, it needs to commit to a broader strategy, which cannot ignore the historic importance of overseas workers. Of course, the industry has to play its part in this too by making construction an attractive career with more direct employment in place of self-employment." We couldn’t agree more! Work is being done within the education sector to make the sector look attractive. The Constructive Voices podcast has a conversation with Craig Bloxhome, Course Team Leader at Cirencester College, who encourages students to look at construction by exploring how technology such as BIM, AI and digital modelling can transform construction education. https://lnkd.in/eEmDcnzS He could do worse than point out that there are exciting, cutting edge projects to be involved with. In the week that the Government also paved the way for a new generation of small nuclear power plants, the one major new power station at Hinkley Point C is generating up to 3,000 jobs on site to complete the fit-out of the plant. As work ramps up, the project will hit peak construction with the workforce swelling to 15,000. Construction Enquirer reports that the number of apprentices trained on Hinkley Point C has passed a new milestone of 1,500, exceeding the original target by 500 with more to come. https://lnkd.in/eSkcxEdw This is good stuff, but there is an elephant in the room. The BBC has run a major story on schools in Stoke that have fallen into such a state of disrepair that it is dramatically affecting the ability of schools to properly function. https://lnkd.in/erq8qhtf How can children be inspired to want to work in construction if they grow up surrounded by the worst examples of poor workmanship, bad practice and constant back and forth conversations about who is responsible for fixing the problems? That's a question for the entire industry to address.

An article in this month's Construction Management magazine showcases the kind of forward thinking construction projects that could help change the image of the construction industry to a new generation of talent. The construction of a 33 storey tower for student accommodation in Birmingham managed by Winvic Construction Ltd is being driven by: Robot assisted construction management Remote control tower cranes Augmented reality powered quality assurance checks A full build being powered by green electricity This is what is possible. The link to the article is here: https://lnkd.in/eSZxMGMt Winvic's video on the project:

Edinburgh's Heriot-Watt University is launching a new masters degree for architecture graduates that puts delivering sustainability at the heart of its course modules. The new master of architecture (MArch) degree, which is to be taught at the learning institute’s Edinburgh and Dubai campuses, will have a ‘strong focus’ on sustainable design in the built environment. The two-year postgraduate programme aims to accelerate the route for students to qualify as professional architects with UK governing bodies, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and the Architect Registration Board (ARB), and with the Commission for Academic Accreditation(CAA) in the United Arab Emirates.

A far reaching review of the CITB and the ITB network from Mark Farmer has been published this week. The key recommendations include ‘a fundamental reset’ of how the CITB operates, and what its purpose is: “The current impact of ITB interventions is observed as insufficient to demonstrate reasonable additionality and on the face of it, justify their existence”. Notably, the review has criticised the ITB’s approach to skills demanding it urgently redefine the approach to their sectors’ training, and support a refreshed training environment that is “modular, unitised and matrix-like with common elements and specialisation options”. The review calls for a fuller focus on competency and productivity. Farmer has called for a “digital skills passport” to become standard in order to record the competencies of the workforce across the industry. Without that system, it is too difficult to “adequately police the workforce and measure strategic improvement”.

Is the challenge of the construction skills gap going to finally going to be on the national news agenda? Today Alistair Smyth, director of policy and research at the National Housing Federation has highlighted to MPs that changes to the planning system will require a re-skilling of the existing workforce, as well as recruitment of new planners as a priority. Speaking to the environmental audit committee, Smyth said: “We will need not only more planners but planners with the kinds of skills that perhaps used to exist more when we had strategic planning in place. “So the government will need to keep a close eye on the skills that are required now but also in the future as we move back towards that planning system.” Its a view echoed by the president of the Royal Institution Chartered Surveyors (RICS) that the construction industry is suffering from an ‘acute skills shortage’. Justin Sullivan has said “Surveyors and other built environment professionals are in short supply across the globe, most acutely in regions where construction is booming, such as the Middle East. “We must also develop an increasingly welcoming profession which is open to people of all backgrounds and identities – a crucial cornerstone for getting more youth into the profession.” It said for every 10,000 new homes to be built, the sector needs about 30,000 new recruits across 12 trades, ranging from bricklayers, plumbers, roofers and plasterers, but research from money.co.uk reveals that the construction sector is suffering from the second-greatest worker shortage of any UK industry. 16% of construction businesses reported to the ONS that they were experiencing worker shortages. Money.co.uk identifies that the industry struggles with diversity, particularly in gender representation, as it remains predominantly male-dominated. This lack of diversity makes it even harder to attract new talent. RICS said that while the industry has “the capacity to deliver current build levels, tens of thousands of new people will need to be recruited if we are to reach the targets set out”. These issues are now openly being discussed in parliament, in significant addresses at all parts of the construction supply chain, and recognised by those working outside the construction sector. The market demand for a new approach from the sector is crystallising... A few links: https://lnkd.in/eNdhV2Cv - Builder Merchants News on the money.co.uk research https://lnkd.in/ejDXNs7P - new RICS head warnings https://lnkd.in/e3mwVywh - Government must keep an eye on skills warns NHF director