Skills

Workers who gained skills cards through employer recommendation have until the end of the year to become formally qualified At the start of 2023, some 60,000 people held Industry Accreditation (IA) cards or ‘grandfather rights’ – Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) cards that are obtained through employer recommendation. Since then,…

Natasha Kearslake is the founder of HR and training firm Organic P&O Solutions, which works with businesses in the construction and engineering and sectors When it comes to attracting Gen Z and neurodivergent employees, the construction sector is years behind engineering and tech companies. But leaders can make quick progress…

Diarmaid Connolly is project director at construction consultancy Linesight The rise in AI technology and applications like ChatGPT is creating a boom in the digital infrastructure market, but the growing demand for data centres brings with it a heightened strain on supply chains.  Recent volatility in energy and material prices…

Gary McIndoe is managing partner at Latitude Law Since the UK left the EU, restrictions on employing overseas workers have been lifted in an effort to allow businesses to access the skilled staff they need. A cap on numbers was lifted, and the requirement for resident labour market testing was…

Mat Ilic is co-founder and chief executive of climate ed-tech firm Greenworkx, and a former special adviser at No 10 Downing Street The question of how to deliver a fair and equitable transition to net zero has been under the microscope in recent weeks following the UK government’s climate-policy U-turns.…

Michael Doolin is group managing director of consultancy Clover HR Addressing the UK’s ever-growing skills gap must be at the top of the next government’s priority list because a failure to do so would have a huge impact on the growth of the UK economy and the competitiveness of so…

Simon Barlow is the managing director and founder of Rye Demolition In today’s tough economic climate, it might seem strange to some to spend money on hiring new people, but for businesses of all sizes, especially within the built-environment industry, the acquisition of skilled labour is vital, not just for…

In the quarter before Covid hit the UK economy, there were 27,000 vacancies in the construction sector. That figure was almost 4 per cent higher than in October 2016, when Mark Farmer released his landmark report on the industry’s labour model, which warned of a potential “capacity shrinkage that would…

Making sure firms and workers are competent to carry out construction projects is one of the biggest post-Grenfell initiatives in the sector. CN investigates the progress to date In the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, Dame Judith Hackitt’s seminal report Building a Safer Future highlighted a construction industry that…

The further education (FE) sector has a role to play in addressing the retrofit skills shortage. But as MidKent College curriculum director Jane Le Poidevin (pictured) says: “The retrofit landscape is so challenging. I think the sector’s a long way from meeting some of its targets, especially in terms of…