Skills crisis looms in run up to 2012

Growing evidence of a skills crisis at management level has prompted several the UK's largest contractors to introduce lucrative finders fee bonuses for staff.

Bovis Lend Lease will offer up to £5,000 to staff who attract new recruits, up from £1,500 in early February and Costain is lanning to double its finders fee from £1,000 to £2,000 in March to attract people to 'key roles', reported Building magazine.

Across the industry the skills crisis is starting to hit home. A report published by ConstructionSkills Network predicts that construction will require almost 90,000 recruits a year up until 2011 when building activity reaches its peak.

Contract Journal (CJ) said the overall 7% rise in employment levels - equivalent to 88,400 workers a year - is down to an increase in public sector spending and the gradual shift of construction activity from the north to the south, with jobs like the London 2012 Olympics, the Victoria and DLR line extensions and Crossrail the main drivers for growth.

The ConstructionSkills report predicts that the £8Bn Crossrail project alone will need to recruit over 8,000 people by 2012, 3,000 of those by the end of this year. And 500 extra construction managers will be needed on the project by 2012, bringing the total to 1,590.

Speaking to Building magazine, James Hastings, Experian's head of construction figures warned of 'the possibility of capacity constraints' on Crossrail, due to conflict with other local infrastructure projects. 'We're forecasting pretty robust increases in London infrastructure output in the next few years. It might be sensible for people to look at work on the drawing board and jig it around.'

Prospects won't be helped by news that the number of construction apprenticeships was down last year. ConstructionSkills revealed that just 5,319 people completed their apprenticeship in 2007, down from 5,454 the prevous year.

But in an effort to draft in new employees ConstructionSkills has said it will give employers an extra £1,000 for each apprentice taken on. The move is part of a government drive to raise the number of construction apprentices to 400,000 in England by 2020.