A 10 point plan to overcome the construction and infrastructure skills gap
On 28 November 2016, contractor Laing O’Rourke published 'A 10-point plan to overcome the UK's construction and infrastructure skills gap.'
The report suggests that: 'The skills gap is one of the biggest challenges facing the construction and infrastructure sector. However, too much of the focus to date has been on analysing the underlying problems of the skills gap with insufficient emphasis on the solutions necessary to bridge it. ...[Laing O'Rourke's] direct employment model is mutually reinforcing: our employees enjoy continuity of work, benefits and investment in their ongoing development and we benefit from an engaged and retained workforce. This model and culture is focussed, sustainable and long-term.'
Laing O’Rourke’s 10-point plan to close the skills gap is:
- Flex the government’s planned Apprenticeship Levy and reduce delays to approval of ‘Trailblazer Apprenticeship’ standards.
- Create regionally-focused skills pipelines.
- Increase the availability of Russell Group university standard part-time degree apprenticeships.
- Review options for career-transitioning apprenticeships.
- Introduce GCSEs and A-levels in design, engineering and construction (DEC) disciplines.
- Foster collaboration between industry and government to deliver a broader range of improved careers advice for construction and engineering.
- Commit the industry to measurable improvements in diversity.
- Seize the opportunity presented by the creation of the new Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.
- Support the creation of a single construction and infrastructure skills body - merging the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) with the Engineering Construction Training Board.
- Facilitate the ongoing professional development of a directly employed workforce.
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki
- 3 ways the world’s fastest growing economies can close the infrastructure gap.
- Achieving carbon targets and bridging the skills gap.
- Apprenticeships levy.
- Boardroom to building site skills gap survey.
- Construction apprenticeships.
- Construction Industry Training Board CITB.
- Flexible working in engineering services.
- National Infrastructure Plan for Skills.
- Queen's Speech 2021.
- Recommendations for implementation of the National Retrofit Strategy.
- Tackling the construction skills shortage.
- The real deal - at last?
Featured articles and news
Introducing or next Guest Editor Arun Baybars
Practising architect and design panel review member.
Quick summary by size, shape, test, material, use or bonding.
Types of rapidly renewable content
From forestry to agricultural crops and their by-products.
Terraced houses and the public realm
The discernible difference between the public realm of detached housing and of terraced housing.
Put digitalisation and sustainability at the core of curricula
Project management educators are urged.
Looking back at the influence of climate events
From a designer and writer: 'There are limits to growth but no limits to development'.
Terms, histories, theories and practice.
Biophilic design and natural light
Letting in the light and natural elements into spaces.
APM Programme Management Conference 2024
Strategies for Success.
Residential takes the reins as contract awards even out
Contracts down, but remain above the last quarter of 2023.
Celebrating Eid and the largest mud-brick building.
Barry Kingscote claims prestigious CIOB CMYA Award.
The British Mosque: an architectural and social history
The story of some 1,500 mosques or more in Britain.
Heat pump refrigerants, efficiencies and impacts
R12 to R1270 what are the differences?
Global heat pump market in 2023
Challenging times with positive but modest outlook.
Beyond the infrastructure pipeline
Opportunities and chokepoints.