A crisis in construction skills

I published this blog in January 2017 to start a discussion around the role of the Construction Industry Training Board in resolving the then (and current) impending construction skills gap It feels appropriate to revisit the issue now as the CITB have recently received a mandate for continuance through the biannual construction levy consensus process.

We are sleepwalking into a perfect skills storm, and in my 37 years in construction I have never been so worried about the future for the industry.

If Crossrail 2, HS2 & Hinckley Point all start as anticipated, not only will the UK economy become further imbalanced, it will be very likely that the contractors working in regulated frameworks in the rest of the country may not be able to meet their commitments as a result of skills migration.

And central to this crisis is the part that Government are playing in it.

The imposition of the Apprenticeship Tax, sorry, Levy, is an issue of great ignorance to, I think, 80% of Civil Engineering Contractors and it will be interesting to see how employers view the levy this time next year.

There are a number of issues that will dictate the success, or otherwise, of the Apprenticeship Levy in our sector;

• Will large employers attempt to pass off their Apprenticeship Levy commitments down the supply chain?

• How many employers have retained enough experienced employees to provide the mentoring the is an integral part of any apprenticeship scheme?

• Are the FE establishments fleet of foot enough to offer employers more than a single entry onto courses every September? and,

• Will we see a repeat of the displaced apprentice mountain that was a huge issue during the last recession at the end of every framework?

Of course, the advent of the Apprenticeship Levy has thrown the future of the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) into further jeopardy. The CITB, you may recall, escaped the QUANGO bonfire that was a hallmark of the Coalition Government, and a (possibly justified) murmur of disquiet about the direction of travel has turned into a roar by one or two organisations who have a vested interest in seeing the CITB wound up.

The CITB has suffered from an identity crisis for a long time, is it the ITB it was set up to be? Its it a Sector Skills Council? Or is it a National Construction College?

The answer is, I suspect, a bit of all three, and not enough of any one. My view is that the Construction sector needs an ITB with a clear scope that is somewhat different to the roadmap that the existing Board has drawn up, and should Paul Morrell agree when he reports back to the Government on the future of ITB's generally in the Spring, I hope that the future direction of the CITB will be handed back to industry representatives for them to set a different, more sustainable path for the future.

Finally, you can't talk about skills without acknowledging the elephant in every room - BREXIT. How many large employers who regard the EU as an effective resource pool will find themselves constrained by the uncertainty that exists at the moment?

Make no mistake - like every other sector, the Construction industry is embarking on a journey into uncharted waters. The next twelve months are crucial, not just to those of us who work in the sector, but additionally to the economy of the UK also if the Treasury continues to see the bedrock of the recovery to be infrastructure for growth.