Without getting too Donald Trump about it, the building services sector has a big (and maybe even beautiful!) opportunity to play a crucial role in the government’s industrial strategy and get the UK back on a path to future economic and social growth, writes BESA’s director of competence and compliance Jill Nicholls.
Building engineering companies, technologies, and expertise are increasingly underpinning key sectors identified in the 10-year industrial strategy as having huge growth potential. Advanced manufacturing, clean energy, defence, digital, and life sciences are all at the heart of the government’s £725 billion plan.
A significant business trend highlighted in BESA’s annual Top 30 Contractors’ report last month was that mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) specialists are increasingly winning the position of lead contractor in these high value sectors.
This makes sense because building services regularly account for upwards of 60% of the value in high tech projects like data centres, life sciences facilities, and healthcare/pharmaceuticals labs. However, the companies featured in the report also reported their continuing struggles with recruitment and retention of suitably skilled workers.
No amount of strategy will deliver a successful future without the right amount of the right people. The UK has a deep-rooted productivity problem and lacks a suitably trained and resourced workforce, but the government has acknowledged this by placing a plan to create one million new jobs alongside the delivery plan for its flagship strategy.
Struggling
In building engineering, we have an ageing workforce with more people approaching retirement than starting on their career journey. Our businesses are already struggling to attract the skilled people they need. In fact, this has regularly been identified by BESA members as the biggest barrier to their prospects.
That is not new, but the creation of a Construction Skills Mission Board charged with supporting the industrial strategy by adding 100,000 workers a year to the pool of ‘people resource’ is.
BESA is already working closely with this board, which was set up by the Construction Leadership Council to support the government’s commitment to invest an additional £625 million in construction skills – and “get Britain working”.
This is a once in a generation opportunity to go after our recruitment goals because the government is promising real and long-term backing. Our work with the mission board will be all about driving recruitment through giving employers the confidence to invest in long-term recruitment. They need to feel that someone has their back.
This will require lots of hard work around clearing new entrant pathways into construction-related careers, improving access to training support and provision, better funding models, and creating reliable and rewarding careers so more young people are attracted to our industry.
It will also be crucial to build a more constructive relationship between building services employers and the Further Education (FE) sector. Many training centres have stopped delivering building services courses because of historic low demand. This is a fundamental problem that undermines any progress we make in promoting the sector to young people and persuading them to consider apprenticeships with us.
We need to give FE organisations the confidence that, not only will there be people queuing up to take apprenticeships, but that the industry will also deliver experienced engineers willing to both train and assess the students so they can invest with confidence in our industry once more. The availability of unprecedented levels of government funding could be the ‘game changer’ here.
Another systemic weakness that we are determined to tackle is the critically low number of trainers and assessors for building engineering courses. This is undermining the whole FE process. Failing to address this issue will leave the industry unable to plug skills gaps and meet demand for its services by the end of this decade.
That is not hype. It is self-evident.
This led to the launch of the ‘BESA Skills Legacy’ programme’ during National Apprenticeship Week earlier this year, and which is already showing signs of progress towards getting more experienced engineers to put themselves forward to be qualified trainers and assessors. Our FE partners tell us this is what they need most desperately to deliver the courses that will grow the number of qualified people entering the sector.
Reassurance
This exciting initiative should give colleges and other education providers greater reassurance that building engineering training courses will be fully supported so they can invest in the equipment, resources and workshop space needed to deliver them.
The scheme is aimed primarily at engineers with practical experience and who may be in the later stages of their careers but who are also looking for a new challenge or the chance to “give something back” to their industry by helping to foster a new generation of engineers.
Engineers often undervalue their own knowledge and experience because it might come naturally to them, but it has huge untapped value for both colleges and students. So, by offering to share it with a whole new generation, more mature engineers will be making an enormous contribution to the advancement of our industry.
Having a new cohort of ‘mentors’ through this scheme will also be crucial to the delivery of another new initiative with the introduction of foundation apprenticeships, aimed at providing 16 to 21-year-olds with a pathway into industries like ours.
These level 2 apprenticeships are launching next month and blend hands-on work experience with technical learning, while allowing young people to earn as they learn. This is something many employers have been pushing for repeatedly.
Foundation apprenticeships are pegged to the government growth plans because they are particularly valuable for those seeking their first step into critical sectors that support national economic growth and, among the first batch to be announced, was the Building Services Foundation Apprenticeship, which members of BESA’s Education Committee helped to shape.
It introduces learners to essential roles in low carbon heating, refrigeration, air conditioning, and plumbing across residential, industrial, and commercial settings. Apprentices will learn a variety of basic knowledge and skills including how to comply with health & safety regulations, carry out simple BSE system checks, and communication.
So, we are working on multiple fronts to underpin our industry’s future contribution to the government’s ‘growth’ agenda – and now with the added confidence of truly significant public funding.
This is allowing us to back our employers with the recruitment support they so desperately need and ensure BESA members continue to sit at the heart of the high-quality engineering solutions that are making Britain great(er)…again!
You can find more information about how to sign up to be a qualified trainer/assessor by visiting the website.
BESA is also planning to hold an open Skills Roundtable in the autumn which will give all interested parties an opportunity to gauge progress on all these fronts and debate areas of concern.