Nearly three quarters of construction firms do not employ an apprentice and do not plan to do so in the next 18 months says Construction News. This is the main finding in a survey carried out by training provider Pearson for National Apprenticeship week which has taken place over the last five days.
The survey found that 70% of construction employers do not employ any apprentices under the aged of 25 and 72% do not intend to hire an apprentice in the next eighteen months. It also revealed that 28% of construction employers would not hire an apprentice even with all the support they needed.
Pearson’s Fiona McBride told the magazine: “Apprenticeships are the gold standard for vocational learning, and could play an important role in strengthening our businesses and supporting economic growth.
Brian Berry, Federation of Master Builders (FMB) director of external affairs, said that, according to an FMB survey, the biggest barriers to hiring an apprentice were “a lack of confidence in the economy and future workloads”.
He said: “The apprenticeship challenge in the construction sector is about growing the supply of skilled and qualified workers in line with the industry’s needs… It is employers who are at the heart of the apprenticeship system and it is extremely difficult to anticipate much growth in the number of construction apprenticeships without growth in the industry.”
However figures from the National Apprenticeship Service show that the number of them employed in the industry remains at around 26,000.
Meanwhile, the sector remains lukewarm about the introduction of High Level Apprentices in Construction Management. These HLAs will be available in colleges in September.
