Construction Sector
Introduction
Executive Summary
How do we bridge the gap between supply and demand for industry training in the construction sector in Greater Cambridge? Employers want short courses which make a difference to their business. Colleges and universities deliver government funded training. This is the essence of the supply and demand conundrum.
This report sets out to identify skills gaps and solutions for the Construction sector in the Greater Cambridge Area which covers the county of Cambridgeshire and the neighbouring districts of Uttlesford in Essex; St Edmundsbury and Forest Heath in Suffolk; and North Hertfordshire.
Background
The report is part of an European Social Fund (ESF) project called the Greater Cambridge Employer Skills Forum. It is set in the context of the Leitch Report on skills development. In order to become a ’world leader’ in skills there needs to be a greater emphasis on engaging with employers and creating a genuinely ’demand–led’ system for the planning and delivery of skills.
Recognising these two objectives (employer engagement and skills demand), GCP is establishing an Employer Skills Forum. A key business need in Greater Cambridge for example, is to better match the range of training provision to employer workforce needs and this is a primary aim of the Employer Skills Forum project.
Project Aims
- Set up a range of sub–regional sector skills focus groups comprising generic business representative organisations; sub–regional business groups and associations; FE & HE representatives.
- Disseminate information to the Forum on skills activity in key sectors focusing on full–cost and funded learning.
- Share information around seven key skills themes (qualifications; training provision; training demand; government intervention; employer sector based networks; employees training needs analyses; and entry level issues) analyse and disseminate across forum.
- Work with colleges, universities and private training providers in the sub–region to develop new ways of responding to employer needs.
Construction Sector in Greater Cambridge – The Current Picture & Issues:
The construction industry is vital to the Greater Cambridge economy. The sub–region reflects both the regional and national picture of a male oriented industry dominated by small and micro businesses. Many workers in the industry continue to have self–employed status. This sub–contracting network which spreads out across the sector suits the cyclical and volatile nature of industry activity – where order books can go from full to empty on the basis of national economic confidence. In many ways, the construction sector acts as an excellent barometer for the economy as a whole.
The recession has had a large impact on the construction industry and it is unlikely to recover or at least return to 2007 levels of output for several years. There are some 6,000 construction related businesses operating in Greater Cambridge – most of these are very small businesses, employing fewer than 5 staff. The sector employs around 35,000 people in Greater Cambridge. By its nature, the construction industry skills profile is driven by regulation. The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) is well known to employers. It has acted as both a policeman (demanding a training levy) and an angel (providing training grants to smaller businesses); and providing a voice for the industry. Much of the training on offer relates to new regulations (electrical appliances; gas fitting; water/heating; and of course health & safety). Construction workers generally need a "competence card;" there are several card schemes to choose from. CITB is now part of Construction Skills, the sector skills council, which also owns and manages the National Construction College (NCC). The headquarters for the sector skills council, and the largest training campus of the NCC is based just outside Kings Lynn at Bircham Newton.
Skills gaps are evident throughout the industry. Although practical and technical skills gaps are regularly reported, many of these diminish over time, as workers become more experienced in the job. However, management skills gaps are more difficult to overcome merely through experience and they are often harder to identify than practical skills. Experienced construction workers who are promoted into management jobs often need to learn new skills – oral communication; team working; delegating, supervising; writing; IT customer focus; and finance to name a few areas of importance – and if these skills are deficient it will not only damage the individual’s career prospects but may also affect company performance. In the Greater Cambridge area these skills gaps are evident.
Some skills gaps simply go away (through learning on the job); others are remedied through attending a specific course. But some skills gaps remain 'embedded' and may need diagnostic support to 'uncover' them.
When it comes to provision, there is plenty of reason to feel reassured that skills gaps can be met. Colleges in the area deliver a range of industry specific courses and have learnt over the last decade how to market their provision more effectively. The National Construction College has a vast campus dedicated to construction skills and it offers a range of industry specific short courses. Anglia Ruskin University is an accredited learning centre for the Chartered Institution of Building (CIOB), and works closely with the local FE sector to provide progression “accords” for students. The University of Cambridge offers a range of degrees which are validated by RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects).
Against this positive picture there are however some weaker areas to note: Many institutions are still too reliant on traditional course terms: it is interesting to note that colleges still plan apprenticeships around the academic year, as opposed to delivering an apprenticeship programme based on recruitment patterns in the sector. Colleges tend to have a skeleton staff outside of term times.
Moreover government funded programmes such as Train to Gain, though a welcome income stream, have brought with them a skewed customer focus: it is not employer targets which colleges try to meet, but government targets. So although many colleges have large client databases (e.g. Cambridge Regional College has a contact database of 1200 employers), it is not clear whether businesses in general, would choose their local college for full cost bespoke training. Given the likely reduction in government funding for skills in the future, this is more than an academic issue: full–cost courses, not subsidised by government, are set to become the norm. Training providers need to develop a new competitiveness based around satisfying employer’s upskilling choices.
Colleges in the Greater Cambridge area provide a range of construction specific short courses, many relating to regulation updates (e.g. 17th Edition Electrical wiring). The National Construction College offers a dedicated Construction short course programme with a range of leadership and management options (including sustainability management) and a diagnostic tool which helps uncover management skills gaps.
University provision is excellent in terms of graduate and post graduate programmes but they are less effective at delivering demand led industry specific short courses.
Looking to the future, the Hive – encompassing the new BRE Innovation Park; SmartLIFE Low Carbon; and the Good Business Centre – offers exciting prospects for low carbon construction development and the possibility of a training supply chain that reaches out to smaller sub–contractors. It would appear that neither Cambridge Regional College or BRE (through BREEAM – the BRE Environmental Assessment Method) – currently offer courses to small businesses on how to construct buildings that receive high BREEAM ratings. BREEAM is rightly concerned with training assessors for eco–building, and Cambridge Regional College is centrally involved in training a new generation of environmentally aware builders who will undoubtedly contribute to a low carbon environment in the East of England. But neither of these worthy training activities address the issue of upskilling small construction sub–contractors. Whilst the Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) offer a range of environmental courses through their Mid Career College, few events are currently held in this region.
Recommendations:
To clear the 'backlog' of skills gaps in the sector would require a concerted effort by employers (to pay for), employees (to willingly attend) and the training sector (to deliver what’s needed).
There is a choice between doing nothing and accepting that some skills gaps will persist to the cost of the industry, or acting to remove barriers and deliver the skills the industry needs.
Five specific actions are recommended:
- Set up a construction employers forum (possibly online) to regularly meet with FE, HE and the National Construction College to express training needs, preferred delivery methods and best provider partnership arrangements. Look at the possibility of linking in this work with the Construction Skills Network East Observatory meetings.
- Establish an online brokerage system for short courses and employer requests so that a market place for construction skills in the GCP area is clearly accessible.
- Invite Construction Skills to carry out free diagnostic tests with construction managers with a view to delivering construction specific leadership and management short courses.
- Continue to explore opportunities for engaging small and micro construction businesses through existing networks and trade associations.
- Specifically look into construction sustainability courses for the sub–contractor market and the small business sector in general.
