UCATT Warns That Stick As Well As Carrot Is Needed To Close Construction Skills Gap

Construction union UCATT have warned John Denham the Secretary of State for Skills, that his plans to ask construction employers to voluntarily increase training and to set funding aside for the project are likely to be unsuccessful.

Mr Denham has announced that he is setting aside £200 million in capital spending over the next three years in order to improve training of young workers.

The Government estimates that the construction industry needs to train 650,000 workers by 2014, but last year only 7,000 places for apprentices could be found, despite 50,000 young people having applied for a place.

Apprentice’s places are dropping because many construction companies are becoming increasingly casualised. Companies which use bogus self-employed workers or who rely on gangmasters do not train young workers.

In recent years many companies have opted to recruit Eastern European migrant workers, rather than train apprentices. This is a short-term approach, as the number of migrant workers will decrease as their home economies become stronger and other European Union countries open their borders to these workers.

Alan Ritchie, general secretary of construction union UCATT, said: “It is good news that John Denham is trying to ease the problem of skills shortages. However from bitter experience I know that construction bosses will need to be forced into conducting proper training. The Government is the biggest client in the construction industry, it should require all companies employed on its contracts to train a minimum number of apprentices.”

UCATT are currently in the process of finalising a major academic study into why there are such low numbers of apprentices in the construction industry. The report will be published early this summer.

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