Construction Excellence in the North East

Sep 14 2007 by Iain Laing, The Journal

ONCE again, this column finds itself looking at the issue of skills within the industry, following the Government’s announcement this week of a “British job for every British worker”.

We have heard much recently about the influx of Eastern European workers into the UK construction market, but now it seems that Gordon Brown has his mind firmly set on our own shores.

In his first speech to the TUC as Prime Minister, Mr Brown talked about the creation of 500,000 new jobs for British workers, with a particular focus on lone parents and the long-term unemployed.

Mr Brown believes there are too many “NEETs” – people Not in Education, Employment or Training. Likewise, as Terry Hanlon of ConstructionSkills pointed out last week, our industry alone is estimated to need 87,600 recruits in each of the next four years to meet demand.

If the Prime Minister is, as the Government claim, in talks with 200 major companies regarding this issue, then it must be hoped a good proportion of these are in our industry – where the recruitment is sorely needed.

Employers will, under Mr Brown’s proposals, be helped to “fast track” recruits with training allowances of £400, while lone parents will benefit from back-to-work tax credits and extending the days they can receive benefits after starting work.

The speech to the TUC follows July’s announcement by the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, John Denham, of a “skills revolution”. This featured accounts to fund training and making colleges more responsive to employers, as a response to the Leitch Report.

Tony Blair’s “education, education, education” was all very well, but what we really need is “skills, skills, skills” and the money to deliver them to employers in a relevant way, If true to his word, Gordon Brown seems to have taken heed of Lord Leitch and grasped this important distinction.

The quality of skills in the construction industry has an effect on almost everything else around us. Not only is it vital that our workforce is highly trained so that buildings do not fall down as soon as they are up, but there are further economic effects.

A skilled worker will be an economic benefit to the employer. In turn, stronger individual businesses go towards making a better UK economy.

Furthermore, all across the construction industry, the better the skills base, the better the buildings in which we all live and work will be.

If, indeed, there is a skills revolution going on, then the Government must put the construction industry at the heart of the action.

For more information on Constructing Excellence in the North East, contact regional director, Catriona Lingwood, on (0191) 383-7435 or catriona@constructingexcellence-ne.org.uk.

Catriona Lingwood is regional director, Constructing Excellence in the North-East.