New recruits to cut skills gap

A new agreement between government and employers, to help beat major skills shortages in the UK construction industry, has been announced by Skills Secretary John Denham.

The £133m, three-year scheme agreed by Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS), the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and ConstructionSkills will seek to deliver more skilled and qualified workers in a sector requiring over half a million new entrants in the next five years.

It is hoped the programme will facilitate 6,500 apprenticeship starts, along with over 2,000 specialist apprenticeship starts and 50,000 plant operatives qualified at full level 2s.

"The government values the immense contribution the construction industry makes to our national life, and is committed to working closely with the sector to help it attract, train and retain quality staff," said Mr Denham.

"This compact will ensure that employers will have access to flexible, world-class training tailored to the specific needs of their business, delivered when and where they need it."

The scheme will also support a proposal for a Construction Bursary Scheme, providing bursaries of up to £1,200 to allow atypical diverse apprenticeship candidates to work on site for up to 12 weeks prior to commencing employment.

It is anticipated that 500 people annually will enter apprenticeships via this route over the three year period.

Commenting on the new scheme Damien Cleghorn, policy officer with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, said: "The government is already struggling to reach housebuilding targets as developers scale down levels of construction.

"This situation is likely get much worse when the level of housebuilding picks up unless more skilled workers are brought into the industry.

"As high level construction professionals are key to the successful delivery of the government's housing and major infrastructure projects, the government needs to take action on a number of fronts from retaining Quantity Surveying and adding Project Manager for Property Development and Construction to the National Shortage Occupation List, as shortages in this area are pushing up costs and delaying projects."

Gordon Brown has committed to building two million new homes by 2016, with a further one million, carbon-neutral, properties added by 2020.

Chris O'Toole