Industry Skills Plan for the UK

On the 11th of March this year, the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) published the first sector-wide skills plan for construction. The purpose of this is to determine the key skills challenges faced by construction and how they can be solved. Approved by the government, the plan outlines a series of actions, responsibilities and commitments for the industry that will help meet these challenges.

The Industry Skills Plan is organised within four main group areas:

• Careers

• Standards and Qualifications

• Training, Education and Development

• Culture and Working Environment

  "

  “This is the most ambitious and wide-ranging skills plan the construction sector has ever produced. It should have a far-reaching impact on how we attract, retain and develop people in construction and help deliver upon Government’s home-building and infrastructure plans.”
  – Mark Reynolds, Group Chief Executive of Mace and CLC member

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We Must All Play Our Part

In order for the construction industry to grow, all bodies involved need to collaborate and focus on their respective roles, such as:

• Government - will share data with construction partners so that they understand and perfect the impact of their work

• Cross-Industry Bodies - will encourage changes to the structure of the industry and the move from contractor to employed basis; they will also provide cross-industry insight on the changing nature of work in the sector

• Stakeholders and delivery partners - will cooperate with a view to ensure a consistent approach and to achieve maximum impact

• Employers - will share data and input to the evidence base by participating in research; they will also be open-minded when it comes to future changes and needs, as well as support no barriers to upskilling

On top of that, if all the parties collaborate and support each other within all four areas (Careers, Standards & Qualifications, Training & Development, Culture & Working Environment), not only will the industry become more attractive to talent but it will also create foundations for high-quality and transferable skills and pathways for learning. By working together and joining forces, the industry enables fine training and development, which consequently, provides the workforce with current and emerging skills. Finally, who wouldn’t like to work in a place, where both environment and culture make it stand out and inspire talented individuals to stay?

What Is The UK’s Construction Skills Plan Focusing On?

For the first year of this plan’s lifetime, the focus is going to be on the following areas:

• 01

  Access & Attractiveness

  Improving access to opportunities for all and attractiveness of careers:

  • Support access for all industry to lead a more inclusive culture that will encourage new entrants at every stage of their career and retain talented workers

  • Talent View portal will be created, providing a one-stop-shop for new entrants and an industry standard for work experience will be put in place

  • Make construction an attractive career sector of choice through better development, delivery and showcasing of the career development opportunities

  • Strengthen support for direct employment through procurement

• 02

  Industry: Apprenticeships, Further Education, Higher Education

  Boosting all routes into the industry, including enhanced work experience provision for those in full-time FE and HE:

  • A set of new construction traineeship programmes will be developed in order to support and boost routes into the industry

  • Grow the number of apprentices and enhance the routes to and through apprenticeships

  • Improve the connections between FE and employers, as well as the pathways from FE into apprenticeships and employment

  • Enhance the links between HE and employers, and the pathways from HE into employment

• 03

  Competence of Individuals

  Shifting to focus on competence through the development of sector-specific competency frameworks and ensuring both “point in time”, ongoing continuous professional development (CPD) and revalidation of competence.

  • Develop higher technical qualifications in order to support progression

  • Health and Safety: Set higher standards of safety practices within the industry

  • Modernise standards and qualifications with a view to deliver both digital and behavioural skills the industry will require in the future

• 04

  Skills for a Modernised Industry

  Up-skilling and re-skilling in the skills that are required to transform the industry. This will incorporate a focus on both new technologies, like off-site, and the requisite behaviours, such as creativity, sustainability, and inclusion.

  • New training standards will be set in two areas: to support the drive towards Net Zero fossil fuel emissions and for Smart Construction to develop digital and offsite construction skills to emerging innovations and digital technologies in order to enhance efficiency, productivity, sustainability and building safety

  • Up to 7,000 STEM Ambassadors will be encouraged to join the sector-specific Construction and Built Environment scheme, with a target of 1,700 supported by 2024

How Can Modern Technologies Support the Skills Plan?

At Archdesk, we believe in life-long learning and self-development. This is why we offer you multiple training and provide you with the learning materials. To help you get the most of ERP software, we have carefully designed and created training materials. No matter your role in the company or in a given project, you will be able to find resources curated to your needs. We offer you:

• Video Tutorials - a role-based video training at different levels of difficulty, so that you learn starting with the basics and going more in-depth, to the most advanced functionalities once you feel more comfortable with the system.

• Knowledge Base - consists of written guides and how-to articles allowing you to quickly search for the answer you are looking for. The guides are process-based articles that show you, step-by-step, how to achieve your desired result with certain functionality.

• Webinars - consist of the recordings of live training sessions on a particular system-related topic, which you can join to ask questions during the session.

• White Papers - treat important issues in the construction industry and offer best practices. Read our white papers to learn more about what others in the industry find crucial to their business performance.
  
  ..and more!

Archdesk is dedicated to supporting the Skills Plan’s Access for All. We realise that increased female participation in construction is necessary to fill a labour shortage and to promote equality. This is why Archdesk focuses on empowering women to join this male-dominated industry by sharing their individual stories about successful careers in construction.
Not to mention that Archdesk employs people from all around the world, coming from different social backgrounds and expressing different religious beliefs. There is no place for discrimination but instead, a sense of community that is being cultivated every day. This helps us grow inside and out with increased awareness. Besides, as a matter of fact, the more diverse a company is, the higher profitability it has.

Additionally, at Archdesk, we are also dedicated to protecting the environment at all costs. We support the plan towards Net Zero fossil fuel emissions and are all for green building in construction. We inform our customers of the benefits of investing in sustainable technologies, such as solar power or durable materials, which will gradually reduce waste and minimise energy use.

Finally, we proud ourselves on educating the industry on how to apply modern solutions in action. Our innovative ERP software supports the drive towards a digital transformation of the industry and its processes. Thanks to our cloud-based solution, the employees have access to the system from any device and place. Once a project manager logs in, he has got a clear view of the up-to-date situation with data, which facilitates not only his work but also the company’s workflow. For each project, we offer financial dashboards with live information and provide integration with accounting systems, such as QuickBooks, Xero or bluQube.

To sum up, the Industry Skills Plan is developed for industry by industry. It complements an already existing Industry Recovery Plan proposed by the CLC to face the consequences of the pandemic crisis. The Plan’s main focus and concern are addressing the ever-growing skills gap within four areas: Careers, Standards & Qualifications, Training, Education & Development and Culture & Working Environment. At Archdesk, we do our best to support this plan because we realise how important it is to keep the industry unified, as only by working together towards a common goal, we can achieve great things!