We all have answers to the skills crisis, so let’s share them

Skills shortages in construction feel like one of those problems the industry is always grappling with but never manages to fix.

And in truth, it is fiendishly complex. After all, construction is not one homogenous sector requiring one set of skills. It is a wide-ranging industry covering all sorts of disciplines that are constantly evolving, even more so now with the ever-quickening pace of digital change. There has never been and probably never will be a silver bullet that would solve the skills shortages.

Anyone who read Mark Farmer’s 211-page report last month into the industry training boards (ITBs) for construction and engineering will know that he made a total of 63 recommendations to overhaul the skills system.

It is a favourite industry pastime to moan about the CITB statutory levy and wish it were done away with, but Farmer merely wants it to be modernised and spent more effectively. I probably side with the reformers on this one: it does not feel like the right time to be scrapping the levy and starting again from scratch.

Most of his recommendations have been at least partially accepted by government – though not the actual merging of the construction and engineering ITBs into one training board; they are only being encouraged to collaborate more closely.

It makes absolutely no sense to be turning away young people with bags of potential just because they do not perform well in an exam

And now, neatly timed for Apprenticeship Week, the government has announced that it is introducing some flexibility to the English and maths GCSE requirements for would-be apprentices  over 19 years old. It is now up to employers to decide if an apprentice needs to have these qualifications.

This is a welcome, if partial, step – affecting 19-year-olds and over, so it does not benefit 16-plus apprenticeships, though the government thinks it will boost total apprentice numbers in all sectors by 10,000 each year.

As Farmer’s review pointed out, employers found basic qualification in those two subjects a huge barrier to people being able to take up or complete construction apprenticeships. What a ridiculous position to have found ourselves in. It makes absolutely no sense to be turning away young people with bags of potential just because they do not perform well in an exam.

Employers have known this; now finally politicians have caught up. And let’s be clear: the decline of construction apprenticeships over the past couple of decades is a symptom of successive governments of different political persuasions all favouring academic education over vocational routes.

We know lots of people learn by doing, so let them. Quite frankly we cannot afford to do otherwise, and this government with its mantra of economic growth knows it. The statistics we cite in our analysis of the skills challenges speak for themselves: 251,000 additional construction workers will be needed in the period to 2028, while apprenticeship numbers in the industry have been stagnant.

Outdated attitudes have influenced policy for far too long, and the impact cannot be reversed overnight. Still, there is much that can and is being done to improve skills within the industry.

Take the Design Engineer Construct! learning programme, otherwise known as DEC. This is the brainchild of Alison Watson, currently the president of the Chartered Institution of Civil Engineering, who when carrying out surveys at schools realised how fascinated the kids were by her work.

What impresses me about Watson is that she figured out how to channel that fascination into meaningful experiences at school. She knew that young people don’t need to be sat listening to “inspirational” talks; they need to be actively working on a creative project, one where they can see results from their own efforts and realise the impact they can have.

DEC is just one initiative, and while it is doing great work in many schools it has ambitions to reach hundreds more by asking more companies to come forward and “adopt” a school. I hope many do.

Next month, we will be publishing the Building Good Employer Guide 2025 at a special event to showcase how leading companies are attracting and retaining talent across the built environment.

For me the guide encapsulates what is possible at a company level: many sector employers really are upping their game but, most of the time, unless you are a staff member you do not get to hear about it.

Of course, companies hope their unique combination of benefits and career paths differentiate them in the jobs market, but most also recognise that if the sector cannot portray a positive image collectively the talent pool shrinks and no one wins.

So Building wants to provide a space where companies can come together and share what they are doing, talk about some of the latest trends in approaches to training, about benefits packages, outreach work and ways to improve diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

If the sector is to start bridging the skills gap, it needs to come together to share, challenge and hopefully learn from each other. Industry has a hugely important role in finding solutions, as does government which can help co-ordinate and bring scale to business-led initiatives. We need everyone involved in skilling up.

Chloë McCulloch is the editor of Building