Pro Installer November 2016 - Issue 44 | Page 43

43 PRO INSTALLER NOVEMBER 2016 PRO BUSINESS @proinstaller1 DRIVING FUTURE GROWTH Wayne Lysaght-Mason, managing director at IronmongeryDirect, the UK’s largest supplier of ironmongery products to the trade, discusses the UK skills gap and explains how changes to the Apprenticeship Levy will affect the construction sector. “The recent announcement regarding changes to the Apprentice Levy is welcome news for the construction sector, particularly as it struggles with its biggest skills crisis in almost 20 years,” says Wayne. DWINDLING NUMBERS “Following the recession, the sector lost around 324,000 skilled workers, and currently there are not enough people entering the profession to meet existing work requirements - or to replace the number of workers soon to hit retirement age. As a result, pressure is mounting on the industry to take immediate action to attract fresh, new talent to bridge the gap.” However, UK tradespeople are refusing to let sector challenges affect their job performance, new research has found. A study by IronmongeryDirect revealed that homeowners are still impressed with the work that is being carried out by trade professionals, despite noticing that the numbers of tradespeople available are dwindling. SIGNIFICANT SHORTAGE Nearly 90% of the public gave praise to the high quality of service they received once they had sourced someone to complete the job. 88% said they were happy with the finished result, 9% said it was satisfactory and only 3% said they were not happy with the work undertaken. try is a huge concern, especially as the public is now starting to see evidence of this. “Despite there being fewer skilled tradespeople around to meet existing work requirements, it’s encouraging to see that the ones who are available are doing a good job and managing to keep up excellent standards of work, despite the pressures being put upon them. CREATING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE Wayne Lysaght-Mason, Managing Director at IronmongeryDirect The survey of 1,000 people, who have required the services of a tradesperson over the past year, also revealed the increasing difficultly to hire a skilled professional to carry out home renovations and repairs. One in six people (16%) spent more than three weeks looking for someone suitable to undertake the work, and two thirds (36%) said they noticed a significant shortage of skilled professionals when trying to find a person for the job. Last year the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) found that 66% of small firms had been forced to turn away work due to a lack of staff and resources, showing that the situation has not improved. Wayne continues: “The lack of skilled tradespeople in the indus- “Having said this, we urgently n eed to attract more talent to the sector to ensure standards don’t slip and prevent people from having to wait for long periods of time to get a job completed. Steps must be taken to encourage more people into the industry to develop the skills needed for a sustainable future, perhaps by inspiring young people into a construction career. “Creating more training and apprenticeship opportunities is an effective way of appealing to young people and upskilling them in the areas most in need of additional workers. Therefore, the amended Apprenticeship Levy is a huge step forward for the construction sector, as it will help to generate more opportunities for young people to learn a valuable new trade and progress their careers. “One of the main issues the sector had with the original levy was that smaller companies would miss out on government support towards meeting the costs of apprenticeship training, as they were not eligible to pay the levy. However, the announced changes mean that small companies will receive increased funding, which should encourage more firms to take on young apprentices, giving them the chance to receive handson, work-based experience. “Given the severity of the construction skills shortage, employers have a responsibility to train the next generation of workers to ensure they have the skills to drive forward growth in the future.” www.ironmongerydirect.com