Housing associations can help the construction industry retain their trainee numbers through the recession and so avoid a future skills gap, says ConstructionSkills. Northern Housing spoke to Nigel Donohue, its apprenticeship programme manager

As the economic climate has worsened, it has become more challenging for businesses in the UK to retain their apprentices and continue to invest in qualifying the workforce. That has proved particularly true for the construction sector.

Ever since the recession of the 1990s, when many employers slashed their training budgets, the sector has been beset by skill shortages and there is now a real need to retain and recruit trainees so that the next generation of workers is not lost.

The economic slump in the 90s had a profound impact on the level of skilled workers within the construction industry. In fact, between the years of 1990 and 1993, the total number of trainees in the sector fell from around 41,500 to 29,300: a drop of nearly 30 per cent. There was also a huge decrease in workers aged under 20: the young apprentices.

“Worryingly for the future, the number of young people in training that have been laid off during this downturn has risen sharply since the start of 2009,” said Nigel Donohue, ConstructionSkills’ apprenticeships programme manager. “For this reason, and to help ensure that the industry has the requisite skills to cope with the expected upturn in demand for construction services from 2011, ConstructionSkills has launched a host of new initiatives that provide additional opportunities for housing associations and armslength management organisations (ALMOs), to support formerly displaced apprentices as well as trainees new to the industry.”

In April 2009, the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) published new procurement guidelines for public sector construction projects, stipulating that businesses that use apprentices can be prioritised for publicly-funded work. Donohue added: “This means that housing associations, which receive Government funding, can maximise the opportunity of using young, talented apprentices, who contribute to the continued development of the construction industry and addressing the wider aims of developing sustainable communities.”

The Apprenticeship Matching Service (AMS), which was launched by ConstructionSkills in partnership with the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) – now part of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (DBIS) – and the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), aims to help construction employers continue training their apprentices and, where this is not possible, find alternative employment opportunities for the young people at risk of displacement.

“The total number of apprentices that have registered for support from the AMS now stands at over 2,600. ConstructionSkills’ team has already assisted more than 800 of them, either to stay on with their current employers or to complete their training with new ones. The onus now is to find employment opportunities for the remaining young workers ‘at risk’,” Donohue said.

“Housing associations and registered social landlords can help with this challenge. Through their own direct labour organisations (DLOs) or contracted supply chain, there is an opportunity to have an immediate impact whilst securing the future skill sets necessary to build their communities.”

ConstructionSkills is also developing new training models to encourage firms of all sizes to take on apprentices, which streamline the recruitment process and make it more financially viable for businesses that have been adversely impacted by the recession.

These models include the Group Training Association (GTA) scheme, launched predominantly for small and medium-sized enterprises, that allows a collection of employers or clients to act as one organisation and share the responsibilities of training an apprentice.

Housing associations can also form a ConstructionSkills GTA, providing that 75 per cent of their member companies are in scope to the ConstructionSkills levy. The GTA scheme ensures that selected contractors and member companies do not have to commit to the full financial outlay of training an apprentice, but can share this cost with other firms in the association.

Donohue added: “The UK’s construction industry is the country’s largest industry and contributes around eight per cent of the nation’s GDP. To keep it competitive, and to avoid future skills shortages, we need to encourage strong relationships between the public sector and the construction industry. Only then can both housing associations and the construction industry both grow and benefit from the use of apprentices.”

Find out more about the construction industry’s apprenticeship challenge at www.cskills.org