The UK’s skills approach remains fractured – we need joined-up thinking

Inspiring and training the next generation of construction talent is a responsibility that rests on all our shoulders – and there is a great deal at stake. We are seeing a projected shortfall of 250,000 workers by 2028, while the expectations of what the industry needs to deliver – from data centres and advanced manufacturing to clean energy infrastructure – are getting ever greater. This widening gap between resources and expectations risks becoming even more critical over the next few years.

Labour is pushing for growth, and mobilising policy to secure it. This includes changes to planning, regulation and funding. However, we need to recognise that, without skills investment and the right approach, construction will not be able to become the critical enabler of growth that it could be.

Ultimately, skills are the catalyst for Labour’s missions. It is a significant challenge, but one we embrace, and one that is solvable. To do this, we are going to need to move away from the status quo and take bold, coordinated action.

Just relying on action by individual firms risks a fractured, incomplete approach. We need the support of the government to enable truly coordinated thinking

We need to start by thinking broadly and assessing what skills we actually need. This does not just cover “traditional” construction roles. A notable part of the overall sector shortage is a lack of specialist skills, from technical areas and digital expertise through more administrative roles that are essential to projects. The skills required for a future-proofed construction industry are incredibly wide-ranging, and we need the talent we nurture to be equally diverse.

Businesses in the sector, including my own, are already working hard to build pipelines of talent to match the demand we are expecting. However, just relying on action by individual firms risks a fractured, incomplete approach. We need the support of the government to enable truly coordinated thinking.

>> Also read: A new quango, a new levy and 32 new hubs: six months in, what has Labour done to fix the skills crisis?

The introduction of Skills England last year sent a positive signal to the sector, but since then the details of how the body will achieve its aims have been thin. At the time we called for a dedicated construction skills taskforce under Skills England with a clear remit to attract talent and focus on key emerging roles such as digital and green skills. We firmly stand by this recommendation – and the need for such a body to work with the sector and enable joined-up thinking.

We noted the recent review of the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) and Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB) by Mark Farmer, and his conclusion that the two bodies would benefit from rebranding and merging as a single entity. This fits with the holistic and cross-specialist way we need to think about skills in the modern world, so that overall capacity and resilience can be improved without one programme or sub-sector unnecessarily competing with others for the same talent.

There is a nervousness within the sector that change might not happen quickly enough – and the government has said it has no immediate plans to merge the bodies as the review suggests. Despite this, we welcome the government’s establishment of a steering group to explore the feasibility of Farmer’s recommendations.

I particularly hope that the group notes the review’s plea to overhaul construction’s approach to attracting new entrants to the sector. We suffer from too many outdated stereotypes about the type of careers available. The government and the industry need to better promote understanding of the true variety of modern roles. We don’t need to wait for a perfect, fully formed solution to start making positive progress.

A ready supply of digitally-savvy, carbon-conscious cost managers and project managers is an important part of the puzzle going forward

My own career in construction started with an apprenticeship over 30 years ago. It was transformational for me, and I am incredibly glad now to be able to offer so many young people that same opportunity through Turner & Townsend’s annual programmes. In our latest round we have brought on 58 apprentices out of a total of nearly 300 early careers programme members, with an aim to recruit a further 58 this year.

These roles range across far more specialisms and roles than they did when I started. They are already actively supporting major infrastructure, energy and real estate projects across the country – learning on the job the skills that the sector needs.

It is vital to remember that a ready supply of digitally-savvy, carbon-conscious cost managers and project managers is an important part of the puzzle going forward. Equally important is how we equip our future consultants to navigate the new supply chain arrangements that modern methods and design for manufacture will present.

The range of backgrounds and skillsets in these programmes shows how far we have come, but we cannot stop here. We want to see a clearer coordinating role for the government. Skills England was a positive step. Now it must take note of the industry’s proactivity and hard work to build capacity and attract new talent.

Skills England must help to make sure that our individual organisational assessments of need, specialist talent and demand collectively deliver the future pipeline that the UK so badly needs.

Patricia Moore is UK managing director of Turner & Townsend