A high-profile task force is being set up by CITB to overhaul the industry’s apprenticeships strategy by the end of the year.
The Apprenticeships Commission will aim to develop a long-term strategy to drive employer involvement in training apprentices, putting forward several recommendations on ways the industry can significantly increase the number of apprentices in the system without damaging the quality of training.
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It comes in direct response to recommendations in the CIOB-backed report No More Lost Generations, published last month, which also called on the industry to hold an industry training summit before the end of this year.
Business leaders are currently being approached to head up the commission and will be announced shortly.
Announcing the move, CITB chairman James Wates said: “We face a perfect storm. Construction is set to lose 400,000 workers to retirement in the next five years and, over the same period, we are set to create 182,000 jobs. With the economy picking up, we have a superb opportunity to appeal to a new generation of construction workers and to train them for a rewarding career in construction.”
He added: “During the recession, the needs of the industry and of employers have changed. To compete globally, we need to ensure that our apprentices are skilled and trained to their full potential. It’s the right time to deliver a new Apprenticeship Strategy for Construction. It will drive greater employer commitment to apprenticeships and ensure that we provide solutions to government to help get Britain’s young people back to work.”
Details of the industry training summit recommended in the report are currently being discussed by CITB and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, but it is likely to bring together contractors, consultants, specialists, manufacturers, housebuilders, local authorities and social landlords to get behind a new industry-wide commitment to train and employ 16-24 year olds who are struggling to find work or training.
"We face a perfect storm. Construction is set to lose 400,000 workers to retirement in the next five years and, over the same period, we are set to create 182,000 jobs."
James Wates, CITB
Nick Raynsford MP, who led an inquiry into opportunities for unemployed youngsters in construction, the findings of which formed the basis of the No More Lost Generations report, wrote this week in Building magazine: “A similar summit in 2001 launched a game-changing commitment to improving health and safety in the industry. As a result we have seen real advances in reducing fatalities and injuries and improving awareness across the industry. We need to achieve a similar advance in training and employment practice.”
“Above all we need to secure much greater commitment and buy-in from industry leaders. With almost a million young people in the UK not in employment, education or training, we cannot simply muddle through, depending on an ageing workforce and a further influx of east Europeans.”
Today’s announcement comes after Chancellor, George Osborne, pledged in his budget an additional £170m for small businesses to support more than 100,000 new apprenticeship places over the next two years.
