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PRO INSTALLER SEPTEMBER 2015
PRO SKILLS
@proinstaller1
Employers turn to apprentices
as skills shortages bite
Young apprentices, school-leavers and graduates are being sought after
by an increasing number of employers to help fill job vacancies.
A total of 33% of firms
indicated they intend
to take on young apprentices, according
to the Labour Market
Outlook survey carried
out by the Chartered
Institute of Personnel and Development
(CIPD).
This compares with 26%
of employers who revealed
they plan to recruit more
UK graduates and 12% who
expressed an interest in
giving jobs to school-leavers.
Gerwyn Davies, labour
market analyst for the
CIPD, said the findings
show that a bleak decade
for youth employment is
finally coming to an end.
“After a long, dark
decade, the prospects for
young people are finally looking brighter. The
tightening labour market is
undoubtedly encouraging
more employers to turn to
a wider range of younger
recruits.
“However, it is also due to
recognition among a grow-
ing number of employers
that they need to develop
talent to limit the potential
for future labour shortages
and pay pressures.
“The increase in the number of high-quality apprenticeships and the ongoing
recruitment pressures faced
by employers should mean
that the pathway to sustainable employment will be
within the reach of more
young people.”
In the survey, which was
completed by more than
1,000 employers, other
common responses to
recruitment difficulties included training up existing
workers.
But there has been a
marked increase in employers looking to hire young
people, with the figure
shooting up significantly
from the 22% recorded during the previous quarter.
Job prospects remain
strong, the study found,
and the index which
compares the proportion
of employers planning to
recruit with those planning
to decrease staff levels
up by four points on last
quarter.
Private-sector firms are
driving much of the pre-
dicted growth in employment, the report found.
Source: www.citb.co.uk
Councils want control
of construction training
A growing construction skills shortage threatens the Government’s pledge to build 275,000 affordable
homes by 2020, councils have warned. To solve this, they want to take charge of training locally.
New analysis by the Local
Government Association
(LGA), which represents
more than 370 councils in
England and Wales, reveals a
growing mismatch between
the construction industry’s
increasing demand for skills
and a falling number of
people gaining construction
qualifications.
While the construction industry’s
forecasted annual recruitment
need is up 54% from 2013, there
are 10,000 fewer construction
qualifications being awarded by
colleges, apprenticeships and
universities.
The number of people gaining
construction skills has been falling
for some time. There were 58%
fewer completed construction
apprenticeships last year, than in
2009.
Meanwhile, industry has increasingly struggled to fill vacancies.
Over half (56%) of skilled trade
‘For too long we’ve trained too many
hairdressers and not enough bricklayers’
construction vacancies are hard
to fill, up from 46% in 2011 and
almost triple the proportion of
skilled hard to fill vacancies across
the economy as a whole.
Councils warn this increasing
mismatch is leaving the construction industry stranded without the
skilled employees needed to deliver on the Government’s ambitions
for house building.
The LGA is calling on Government to work with the construction industry, councils and
education providers to develop a
national ‘Skills to Build’ strategy
to solve this growing shortage,
delivered locally through the
devolution process.
Devolving careers advice, post16 and adult skills budgets and
powers to local areas, it would
allow councils, schools, colleges
and employers to work together
to help unemployed residents and
young people develop the vital
skills to build.
Cllr Peter Box, Chair of the
LGA’s Housing Board, said: “For
too long we’ve trained too many
hairdressers and not enough
bricklayers.
“Too few apprentices are getting
the construction skills to build
the homes and roads our local
communities need and developers
are struggling to recruit skilled
labour to build new homes.