Construction is the UK’s biggest employer and exporter, responsible for £81 billion of outputs (£203 billion turnover) every year, more than 8% of the UK’s gross domestic product (GDP), which is three times that of agriculture and larger than any single manufacturing industry. The sector accounts for half the UK’s total investment, and employs more than 2.1 million people (more than one in four of the total UK workforce) in over 700 types of job.

 

 

number of people employed in the UK construction industry

 

number of construction firms in the UK

 

target number of workers to be qualified to NVQ 2 standard each year

 

percentage of construction firms employing fewer than ten people

 

new recruits required every year for the next five years

 

 

The Olympic build will continue to be the most high-profile construction project in the UK between 2008 and 2012. Preparation for the Games is just one of a number of large construction programmes contributing to the continued growth of the industry over the next five years. The UK will see a peak in activity in 2011, followed by a year of little or no growth in 2012 with the completion of the Olympics build and related work. The underground Victoria Line, East London Line and Docklands Light Railway expansion work has been scheduled for completion to coincide with the Games, to ensure the London transport system is ready to deal with the anticipated increase in volume of visitors to the capital. Similarly, work on the widening of the M25 will be suspended in order to avoid disruption during 2012.Of late, the world has become a very different place: the global economy has slowed considerably and the UK economy remains exposed to the debt crisis. In common with other sectors, this has affected the construction industry. However, taking a more long-term view, construction output is set to rise, and in order to achieve its target of a fully qualified workforce, ConstructionSkills (the Sector Skills Council for the construction industry) has said that it needs to qualify 100,000 workers annually to NVQ 2 standard.

 

Other projects, such as Thameslink, Heathrow Terminal East and Crossrail, are also contributing strongly to the continued shift in construction growth from north to south. There has also been considerable office development in London, but this is expected to reduce under current conditions. Indeed, work on the main venues for the 2012 Olympics started ahead of schedule and will continue until at least the end of 2010. The widening of the M25 is well under way, and work on Crossrail (the new high-frequency, convenient and accessible railway for London and the south-east) is due to start this year. There are major railway station redevelopments taking place at a number of locations, including Blackfriars and Farringdon (as part of the Thameslink programme), Reading, Birmingham New Street Gateway and Nottingham. Furthermore, the Scottish Government’s £3 billion ten-year transport investment plan continues, and the M74 redevelopment is currently on track. Construction work relating to the Building Schools for the Future programme will also help to offset falls in activity in other areas.

 

Despite the economic downturn, the number of construction workers required is likely to increase by around 30,000 by 2013. This translates into a need for an additional 42,000 new recruits a year to fulfil the requirement created by additional demand and to take account of industry leavers. Furthermore, additional employees will be required within the professional services sector. In real terms, by 2020, output growth across the construction industry could have risen by a third since 2000.The expectation is that, by the second half of this year, the economy will start to expand once again. Potential house buyers will be able to access mortgage funding, and developers should see demand start to return. Thus, from 2011, construction output is predicted to start to rise once again. Employment in the sector is projected to increase by just over 74,000 from late 2010 onwards – an overall rise of 2.9% between 2009 and 2013.

 

However, the workforce risks a serious skills shortfall due to its ageing nature. Despite 20% growth in the construction workforce since the early 1990s, the expansion has been uneven across different age groups. A major concern is the lack of young entrants into an ageing workforce, with numbers of older workers (aged 60 and over) in the industry having doubled in recent years, while the number of those aged 24 and under has fallen by 27%. While the increasing age profile is most pronounced in the manual workforce, professional trades such as architecture, mechanical and civil engineering could also lose 20% of their manpower to retirement in the next ten years.

 

The majority of employees, for both contractors and professionals, work within medium-sized companies (10–250 employees). However, most companies in both categories are small, with 95% employing fewer than ten employees. Furthermore, many people working within the sector are self-employed, representing over one-third of the available labour in the contracting sector. The under-representation of women and those from minority ethnic groups remains a priority issue for the industry. Training is also an issue: a third of trainees undertake level 1 training, but this does not meet the minimum requirements for new entrants.

 

Those employed at this level will usually be qualified as one of the following:

 

Entry to the industry at this level requires academic qualifications. These could include the following:

 

Technicians generally make things happen by combining theory with practice. They can be qualified in any of the areas appropriate for professional and management careers, or in roles such as:

 

To start training and/or do a college course requires four GCSEs, or equivalent, at grade C or above, with maths, English and the sciences being the preferred subjects. However, some people start training with A-levels and others qualify through craft skills (see below), often attending an FE college to gain, say, national qualifications. Still others enter with NCs/NDs or vocational qualifications.

 

Craftsmen and women are the people who actually make things. Some major jobs for which they are trained include:

– demolition operative

– scaffolder

– steel erector

– steeplejack

– ceiling fixer

– dry liner

– floor layer

– glazier

– painter and decorator

– partitioner

– plasterer

– plumber

– renderer

– wall and floor tiler

– plant hire controller

– plant mechanic

– plant operator (see the accompanying box on the CPCS)

– plant sales person

– built-up felt roofer

– lead sheeter

– liquid waterproofing systems operative

– mastic asphalter

– roof sheeter and cladder

– roof slater and tiler

– single ply roofer

– bricklayer

– construction operative

– stonemason

– bench joiner

– carpenter and joiner

– formworker

– shop fitter

– wood machinist.

 

Many of these trades are learned on the job, but the construction industry has training schemes that combine working and education to produce qualifications. For example, a plasterer might start by learning the basics of plastering walls, but go on to become an expert in ornate ceiling and wall decoration in expensive houses. Other people might build a portfolio in a number of skills to qualify them for supervisory and then general management. Another example of current certification is the Construction Plant Competence Scheme (CPCS) – a card scheme introduced to prove the skills of plant operators (see box).

 

Building services covers the essential services that allow buildings to operate, while the heritage sector has a long history of building traditional-style structures and needs a wide range of craft skills that have to be kept alive for the future.

 

 

Plant is a varied part of the construction industry – there are more than 66 different categories of plant in use. Construction plant operators work with the diverse machinery and equipment that is used on building sites, roadworks, railways and in forestry. The CPCS provides a single skills card for the plant sector of the construction industry; it covers many categories, including some very specialised equipment.

 

Most contractors will insist that plant operators are in possession of an up-to-date CPCS card before they allow them to work on site; it is the largest and most recognised card scheme for the construction plant industry. A valid card is proof of the operator’s skills and shows that they have passed the relevant health and safety tests.

 

After close communication with the industry, the scheme was updated last September to make it easier for plant employers to get their staff accredited in a more flexible way, without losing any of the quality that has always been associated with the CPCS. Accepted on all major construction sites, possession of the CPCS card is an excellent way to make sure that plant operators are qualified to work on any project.

 

For further information, guidance notes or to search for test centres, visit www.cskills.org/cpcs

 

 

ConstructionSkills has developed the National Construction College – a network of colleges training and assessing construction skills throughout the UK. In addition, the industry has its own vocational qualifications and apprenticeships at advanced and apprentice level. Craftsmen/women can gain vocational qualifications while working, and develop their skills through technical training, perhaps gaining certificates or diplomas, eventually becoming fully professionally qualified, with a degree. Entry to these schemes requires reasonable maths and English ability, while more than 90 higher education and 400 further education colleges offer courses in construction and the built environment.

 

 

ConstructionSkills, Bircham Newton, King’s Lynn, Norfolk PE31 6RH Tel: 0344 994 4400 Website: www.cskills.org