Mark Farmer-authored report for DfE draws up 63 recommendations
An independent review commissioned by the Department for Education is calling for a major overhaul of the construction skills system.
The review, led by Mark Farmer, founder of Cast Consultancy, has said a fundamental reset of the current Industry Training Board (ITB) model is necessary to safeguard growth ambitions.
It says the current system is not effectively addressing the sector’s needs and a more strategic, unified approach is required to build a more resilient, productive and skilled workforce.
The review makes 63 recommendations to transform how the industry approaches workforce development.
The Department for Education has accepted 34 recommendations without amendment, and partially accepted or accepted in principle 26 recommendations.
It said industry needs to move away from focusing solely on new entrants and apprentices, to a whole workforce approach that includes upskilling and reskilling existing workers.
Industry Training Boards (ITBs) need to deliver more innovative and impactful programmes to drive at scale improvements in industry competency, productivity, and retention, the review said, and to focus on both the employed and self-employed workforce.
Farmer, who was the author behind the 2016 Modernise or Die report, said: ““If we are serious about cementing growth and future proofing the industry, then we cannot ignore the capacity gap that is widening across our construction sector.
“The report highlights construction is at its lowest employment level since 1998. Since the previous employment peak pre-global financial crisis in 2008, construction employment has fallen by 20% . But in the same period, the UK’s population has grown 10%. These stark numbers now necessitate a rethink on how we arrest the decline.”
Among the recommendations are the need for more flexible, modular, and accelerated career pathways into and through the industry; the introduction of an industry-wide digital skills passport system to improve worker quality assurance; and the implementation of a strategic and digitally enabled workforce planning platform to better model demand and associated skills needs in the construction industry.
Key recommendations
The review proposes a significant shift in focus and approach with a number of key recommendations.
Recommendation 1: The ITB model should be retained in terms of its basic statutory mandate but its strategic priorities, core capabilities and activity require wholesale transformation. This all needs to be ruthlessly focused on addressing the fundamental workforce resilience challenges facing the construction and engineering construction industries
Recommendation 2: The statutory levy-grant system should also be retained but modernised and refocused to ruthlessly drive measurable outcomes linked to the new priority industry challenges. SMART KPIs should be developed aimed at maximising outcomes from levy spend with more balanced accountability between industry and government
Recommendation 3: A fundamental reset is required across both ITBs to change both direction and effectiveness. There is a common fundamental challenge which both industries face in terms of declining workforce resiliency resulting in growing workforce gaps and skills gaps and a more strategic and unified approach spanning both industry sectors should be adopted including operational convergence / merger after a suitable transition, minimising disruption to ongoing activities
Recommendation 4: Three new core strategic objectives are established which guide all priorities and a reset strategic plan: Improve industry’s workforce competency & the ongoing maintenance of its currency; Improve industry’s project level productivity & quality assurance in conjunction with other parallel regulatory reforms; and Improve industry’s strategic level workforce retention and utilisation
Recommendation 6: There is a need for a much more strategic demand planning and linked work brokerage function which can enable skills and competency supply to be better matched to demand over time and geography, including potential for transferable skills within industries, including across engineering construction and construction, to be better identified and exploited and for employers to be able to make more informed decisions on investing in human capital
Recommendation 7: Industry leaders need to increasingly recognise the role their organisations can play in assisting with this training effort alongside providers as part of their social impact and their own direct workforce development responsibilities
Recommendation 10: Existing best practice worker card systems need to be translated towards a single strategic platform capable of measuring and policing worker occupational competency, beyond basic health and safety matters
Recommendation 11: End client entities, not just employers from both engineering construction and construction should also form a much stronger part of the leadership and governance of the new body
Recommendation 12: DfE should, by exception, carefully explore and consult with industry on a modified legislative scope order, aimed at resolving the most obvious anomalies. These appear to be in new and emerging sectors in engineering construction and potentially in areas related to integrated mass building retrofit
Recommendation 13: The ITBs and subsequently the new body should seek to meet a 5% efficiency saving target, and the post-review changes should yield savings of at least 5% from operational expenditure, in line with Cabinet Office
Guidelines. This should include a rigorous examination of the functional need for current staffing levels and propose ways to make significant savings.
Recommendation 14: The ITBs and subsequently the new body should consider publishing clearer evidence of levy spend to show the split between funding spent directly on training and the costs of running the organisation
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