August 15, 2001—Office fit-out company Overbury, urges the construction industry to scrap the restricted funding for apprenticeships, recruit more women into the industry and tackle the skills shortage.
According to the Construction Employment Training Forecast 2001-2005 by the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), the industry needs 74,000 new recruits each year from now until 2005.
At the moment, only trainees who will complete their modern apprenticeship by the age of 25 will receive funding from the CITB and the Learning and Skills Council. Overbury says this discourages employers from taking on older entrants—particularly women coming to construction as a second career—because they are more expensive to train.
Women make up 10% of the workforce in the construction industry, including administrative jobs, according to the 2000 Labour Force Survey, carried out by the Office for National Statistics. Only 0.8% of all craft workers in the industry were female while women make up only 1.8% of plant and machine operatives.
“In my experience, women tend to come into the industry at a later stage in their careers,” says Overburys managing director, Steve Elliott. “The problem with the age limit restriction on funding for apprenticeships is that it greatly increases the costs for employers seeking to take them on. We believe this is one of the biggest obstacles facing women looking for a career in construction. It denies them the opportunity to gain a thorough grounding in craft skills while construction companies are missing out on the chance to tap into a valuable source of new recruits.”
—Jessica Jarlvi
Reprinted with permission; copyright 2001 i-FM
