The CIOB has told a group of MPs and experts that more effort needs to go into retaining ageing workers to help prevent a shortage of skilled workers post-Brexit.
The Institute is among a number of organisations giving evidence to the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Excellence in Built Environment investigating the impact of Brexit on future skills needs in construction.
One of the key issues in the referendum vote last year was the free movement of people. This is of particular significance given the reliance of construction on workers from the EU both at a trades and professional level, and at a time when construction is already facing a chronic skills shortage.
Among the policy recommendations the CIOB included in its written evidence to the APPG in November was the need to put greater emphasis on mentoring and pastoral care if it wished to attract and retain young adults into the sector.
The issue of older workers was also highlighted. The CIOB said that construction firms and the industry as a whole needed to take urgent action to avoid its demographic bulge in older workers tipping rapidly into retirement over the next five to 10 years.
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What a good idea. I am a 61-year-old engineer with decades of experience and finely honed skills in project planning. But try getting work at 61. All around me I see building companies, some still solvent, who couldn’t plan their way out of a paper bag if their livelihood depended on it, which it does. Of course, none have ever even heard of the CIOB Guide To Good Practice In The Management Of Time In Complex Projects.
It is an inescapable fact that ageing happens to all. Many people and today more than ever retain their mental faculties well into their 80s and 90s if not beyond. Why is it then that employers and their recruitment agents seem to have the opinion that once over 45 you should be placed somewhere in a corner and ignored. These same employers then moan about the lack of skills available. There is an abundance of highly skilled, experienced professionals out there willing and waiting to work but being unreasonably ignored and denied the opportunity to continue to contribute to the industry.
Never mind the govt., it is employers that re the problem.
I have never been more valuable as a claims/disputes management/contractual consultant than now, with 50 years of wisdom that can not be found in books, including the ability to see the bigger picture, laterally think and not being fooled by ‘economy with the truth’ I am given by client management at all and any levels who all have their agendas to protect.
It is almost impossible (it seems) to procure a working visa outwith EC countries beyond 65.
But even within the UK exceptional qualifications (plus the aforesaid experience) appear to have no value when age becomes known, notwithstanding the FACT that my level of physical fitness is exceptional also. C’est la vie, it seems.
The CIOB has told a group of MPs and experts …………….
DID THE “Experts” include the recruitment industry? I hope it did as they are the people to be advising against age-discrimination and demonstrating to Employers the benefits of long experience – however, often that is perceived by Employers to be more expensive than a younger alternative. I have worked in several Gulf locations where my ex-pat colleagues are well into their late 60’s and the Clients wont let them be demobilised because they know the experience cannot be replaced by a younger staff member.
I believe it is also influenced by your profession. As an estimator I am still happily working (albeit zero hour contract) as not only do I want to, and remain able to, but try to find estimators…….that’s always been an industry Achilles Heel.
It’s not so much the employers as HR and agencies who do not understand the age discrimination law. It is a different story in the USA, Canada.
I agree with all the statements, it is so narrow minded old fashioned and insulting to state that because people are of a certain age they are no longer fit to work in the industry.
Similar to some of the other commentators, I am 62yo, trained as a QS, have worked all over the world and find that trying to gain employment in the U.K. is most frustrating. The reasons I have been given for not employing me are surprising…as someone qualified to FRICS, FCIOB, MCIArb and MCMI. Fortunately, a major consultancy realises the added value people like me bring to the table. I hope to commence my employment before the end of this month.
I qualified as a plumber & heating engineer in 1976 but quickly moved onto carpentry and incorporated other construction skills. I have in the last 10 years gone into management with all the tickets required but because of my lack of construction credentials have been frozen out by CSCS which a monkey could pass. I can no longer work in construction as a manager without an NVQ. I am 59 and want to earn a living. With my experience I could build a house on my own from foundation up including groundworks. I could teach at college why do I need to go back. The Governing bodies need to have a closer look at the talent they have excluded. I now work as a maintenance manager but my love for working on site has been destroyed by a system that works against the skilled and is and will continue to suffer from the lack of it. WAKE UP WE ARE OUT HERE