A commission set up to investigate the crisis in construction apprenticeships will examine how government apprenticeship reforms can be made to work for small businesses and how vocational training can be made “recession proof”.
The task force, launched by cross-party think tank Demos, led by the Construction Industry Training Board and supported by the Construction Industry Training Council, will also issue a call for evidence in the next two to three weeks, seeking input from individuals or industry organisations experiencing problems with existing apprenticeships or those with examples of best practice that could feed into the process.
“We want to hear from employees and employers, trade unions, training providers, or people in local government,” said Duncan O’Leary, director of research at Demos, speaking after the commission’s first meeting this week. “The call for evidence will run for up to two months, with information posted on the Demos website, on social media including Demos’ Facebook and its Twitter feed, and via the commissioners’ websites.”
The commission’s work will be structured around four phases:
1. Scoping and terms of reference – The commission will examine key trends, policy initiatives and challenges relevant to apprenticeships the sector. This will build on the 2014 Demos publication Up the Job, which explores the role of apprenticeships in improving UK productivity.
2. Call for evidence – The commission’s electronic call for evidence will run alongside select-committee style hearings to draw on the perspectives of key experts and different stakeholder groups.
3. Case study visits, opinion polling – The commission will visit sites across the UK to draw on examples of leading edge practice in the sector. Bespoke opinion polling will explore public perceptions of the sector and apprenticeships within it.
4. Published report and launch – The commission will produce a written report, drawing together the research findings and key recommendations. The report will be published by Demos and lunched at a public event in London.
The Commission on Apprenticeships launched earlier this month to examine vocational training across all sectors, particularly construction, which has experienced a massive 75% drop in completed apprenticeships since the financial crisis with just 3,760 construction apprentices completing training in 2012-13, compared with 14,250 four years ago. It is co-chaired by Conservative MP Robert Halfon and Labour peer Lord Glasman and brings together policy experts, training providers and business leaders including Steve Hindley, chairman of Midas Group and Ray Wilson, director of Carillion Training Services.
“During the downturn, the construction sector has seen the biggest fall in apprenticeships across the whole of the economy,” said O’Leary. “We want to look at how, in the event of a future recession, apprenticeships and training can be designed to remain in place. Although cutting back on vocational training might help a firm survive a recession, problems occur when they come out of it without the skills they need.”
The commission also plans to examine the government’s reforms of the apprenticeship system, which have been criticised for transferring more funding and training responsibilities onto businesses and potentially discouraging smaller businesses from getting involved.
O’Leary said: “The government wants large firms to take more responsibility for setting apprenticeships standards for particular trades, which others in the industry will then adopt. We need to ensure that small firms, who don’t necessarily have the time to get involved in designing a whole apprenticeship, still have input into the process. The reforms need to work as effectively for small firms as for large ones.”
Demos will act as secretariat for the commission, providing research support and drafting the final report at the end of the 2014. The report, which will be shaped by guidance and feedback from commissioners, will make recommendations to the sector itself and for apprenticeships policy more broadly.
The commission’s work gets underway as a flurry of reports show a looming skills crisis in the sector. Earlier this week a report from the FMB said that skills shortages were holding back recovery.
More than a third of construction SMEs told the FMB they are struggling to recruit the bricklayers they need to stay on top of their workloads, while 27% of firms said they were having difficulty recruiting plasterers. Meanwhile a study from Thales Learning & Development revealed that 82% of HR decision-makers in the construction industry believe the industry is experiencing a skills gap.
