Construction launches skills mission at leaders meeting

Senior leaders from across construction and Government Ministers have launched the construction sector skills mission this week, to ensure the sector has the workforce it needs to deliver.

The Construction Skills Mission Board met to set a strategy for recruiting an additional 100,000 workers a year by the end of the Parliament.

The Board was established by the Construction Leadership Council to support the Government’s commitment to invest an additional £625 million in construction skills. To support delivery of this strategy, the government is funding at least £725 billion for infrastructure over the next decade, as well as building 1.5m new homes, and retrofitting an additional 5 million homes.

The Board will be chaired by CLC co-chair Mark Reynolds. The Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Rt Hon Angela Rayner MP, joined the first meeting alongside other Ministers, representatives of the supply chain and training organisations.

The Board will develop specific initiatives and actions to deliver the mission, while supporting the Government to shape, develop and deliver skills policy.

The actions will focus on five key areas to drive increased recruitment. They are:

• confidence to employ and invest;
• clear new entrant pathways;
• access to provision & support to train;
• funding that works;
• and reliable and rewarding careers.

The Board will work with industry bodies to ensure these actions are rolled out across the sector. The CLC is keen to ensure that all parts of the sector can be involved in the Mission, understand the plans and policies being developed to drive investment in skills and play a role in the subsequent work to recruit this new workforce.

Any organisation that would like to support the mission can do so through engagement with their relevant trade body.

Mark Reynolds, Co-Chair of the Construction Leadership Council and Co-Chair of the Construction Skills Mission Board, said: “We have seen real ambition from the Government through its commitment to 1.5 million new homes, clean power by 2030, and a renewal of our public infrastructure; and that ambition has been backed by significant funding commitments around skills. Construction will be essential to delivering growth and investment across the UK; and so it is vital that we now step up as a sector.

“The Construction Skills Mission Board represents a new partnership between industry and government, working together to find industry-led, collaborative solutions to delivering the workforce of the future. I am delighted that we have seen such strong support from Ministers and some of the most important leaders in our sector – and I hope everyone will play their part in the delivery of this essential mission.”

Industry Minister and CLC Co-Chair Sarah Jones said: “We're determined to get Britain building again, which is why we backed the construction sector with over £625 million earlier this year to train the next generation of workers and have followed this up with £275 million for skills in our modern Industrial Strategy.

“The agreement is another vital step towards our target of 1.5 million homes, as part of our Plan for Change. I’m pleased to see government and industry coming together at the first meeting of the Construction Skills Mission Board as we work to deliver the infrastructure Britain needs”.