The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) is urging the construction industry to provide basic English lessons on site. The move follows an estimation that the industry will need an extra 83 000 workers annually, with many expected from non-English speaking areas.
Around 60 people die on site each year and RICS believes that a better understanding of English could reduce this and increase productivity.

RICS spokesperson Launce Morgan said: “Whatever the arguments about the decline of skills in the UK, the influx of foreign labour is likely to continue. The single most helpful thing to a migrant worker would be to help them learn the language of the country in which they are working.”

Chief executive of SummitSkills Keith Marshall commended the idea, saying: “SummitSkills broadly welcomes the RICS report. Measures taken to improve the overall skills of persons in the building services sector will be supported by us. The principle of taking the learning to the learner is one that we would advocate. However, I can well understand how this initiative would work on larger building sites, it will be interesting to see how it works on smaller sites.”

Firms including St George and Carillion are now piloting the idea with colleges local to large projects.

Source

Electrical and Mechanical Contractor