£2.7m Initiative to Boost House-Building Sector

A new £2.7 million initiative, launched by the Home Builders Federation and the Construction Industry Training Board, has the aim of training more than 45,000 workers by 2019 to help bridge the gap in the UK housing market.

The Home Building Skills Partnership is the first programme of its kind and will see companies of different sizes, such as Leeds fabricators, collaborating to ensure that workers have the right skills to keep the industry moving and more homes being built.

It will also see a combination of skills from across the sector to enable better forward planning to take place and ensure that the appropriate skills are available for the future requirements of the industry. The scheme will work with more than 3,500 construction companies, and 45,000 new and 1,000 experienced workers will receive training by 2019 on the new qualifications for house-building workers.

Barriers to Future Success

During the last two years, the construction sector has seen significant increases in activity, particularly within the residential sector, but this success needs the right level of support in order to continue. In 2015, 181,000 new homes were built, which is a 25% year-on-year increase, and the biggest companies were 50% up from their lowest points.

The industry, however, needs to increase its capacity if it is to meet the aims of further increasing output but at the same time maintaining the high levels of customer service and quality that homeowners demand. One of the factors that could impact on this future success is the lack of available skills amongst the workforce, particularly with fewer new entrants coming into the industry.

This new partnership will work with these ambitions in mind by developing training programmes and qualifications that are suited to the modern needs of the house-building industry and providing solutions to the long-term skills' requirements. This will show young people that the industry is a vibrant and successful area in which to work.

It will run for four years and will also conduct research amongst companies in the industry to gain an insight into what barriers the sector is facing, as well as establish a framework to set out training and skills standards for workers.

It is hoped that by working together, companies in the construction industry can improve productivity levels, remove the barriers to success and meet the ambitious targets set out by the government whilst providing quality and satisfaction for homeowners.