Effective management skills are at the heart of a successful construction industry. This came out clearly in a 2013 BIS report, UK Construction: An Economic Analysis of the Sector, which stated that there was a high dependence on the coordination of activities by project managers, both on and off site.
The report concluded that good (construction) management skills are likely to lead to good project outcomes and it is vital that firms invest in developing such skills.
The report also discusses the issue of trade skills. About 16,000 people completed construction trade apprenticeships in 2011/12 compared with 80,000 in business and administration, 59,000 in retail, 42,000 in healthcare and 25,000 in engineering and manufacturing technologies.
In 2012/13 it was even worse: a mere 7,700 apprenticeships in construction were completed.
"If there was a good multi-trade apprenticeship framework, it would be an attractive proposition for individuals and employers. The best we will get from the CITB is a level one diploma, which is just a taster for a traditional trade."
The report found that the industry’s training culture was not strong. With the bulk of the industry being SMEs, the choice between “earning or learning” is overwhelmingly on the side of earning. This is also true of apprenticeships, where the high fall-out rate is not because people do not want to work in the industry. Far from it. People leave apprenticeships to work in the industry.
The focus on single trades is also an issue. Other sectors got rid of single trades years ago. Workers with multi-trade skills are the norm in engineering and manufacturing. If there was a good multi-trade apprenticeship framework, it would be an attractive proposition for individuals and employers. The best we will get from the CITB is a level one diploma, which is just a taster for a traditional trade. As things stand, a multi-trade framework embracing construction and M&E engineering is outside the CITB’s scope.
We need to do things differently. The apprenticeship regime is failing and will continue to fail unless radical changes are made to it. By contrast, at the professional end of contracting, where the CITB does comparatively little,
good things have happened. The proportion of individuals with a degree or a higher qualification has nearly doubled between 2001 and 2012.
The decision at the triennial review of the CITB was to keep it, but it needs to be something more than business as usual because that is not going to meet the needs of the industry.
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It is just as true and important to-day as it was when I took the Licentiate exam in 1962 !! that apprenticeships are one of the most important and crucial part of the first stepping stones for a career in our and other industries.
Keep up the good work Chris.