Investment into construction projects is directly linked to the Levelling Up agenda. As with all sectors, the question being asked is: “Where will the additional workers come from?”. Immigration has been an important part of resourcing and that remains because it is about quality not just quantity.
I speak from the experiences of my business that is based in the northwest and provides services nationally and globally. The House of Commons Library on Youth Unemployment Statistics states that: “The number who are economically inactive (not in or looking for work) increased by 59,000 from the previous quarter and increased by 22,000 from the year before to 2.75 million. 77 per cent of the young people who are economically inactive are in full-time education”. We all know that the biggest challenge is reaching out to the inactive youth, defined as 16-to-24-year-olds, and the remedies will be difficult to implement.
There will be very significant benefits from gainfully employing at least a proportion of these economically inactive young people. In the medium to long term, it will put them on career paths and provide income to the government from tax on their earnings. It will contribute to resolving some of the deep-rooted problems on the margins of our society. And it will help spawn new enterprises in the supply chain.
Construction and related industries are vital to the building and maintaining of the physical infrastructure and environment in which we live. The supply of resources that the industry requires is significantly below the demand, ranging from professional site engineers to ground workers, bricklayers, joiners, steel workers and other skills. The impact of this is to increase wages beyond what is competitive, which is not to decry high wages, but they have to be sustainable. The reality of site work and related services involves working in all weathers and in grubby, albeit safe and, may I say, healthy conditions. There is, therefore, a challenge in attracting young people into a very rewarding career.
There is a good foundation of apprenticeships and training for attracting young people into the industry. Apprenticeship centres and local colleges have successfully developed their schemes, which my company has benefitted from like many others. However, there are a few things that need to be addressed. These include simplifying funding, helping professional apprentices towards graduate paths and promoting and filling the gap for economically inactive young people. From a personal perspective, part of my education was in the old technical and building colleges and they were excellent. I question whether the same universal quality and capability is available today.
I believe that a task force should be set up to conduct a factual review of the situation. It will be important to engage with construction companies to take account of their views on how best to bridge the gap.
As a business we benefitted from the youth training schemes in the 1980s and 1990s. They had shortcomings and you could argue they were primarily used to make things look better politically. However, a similar but more effective youth development initiative is needed as a transition into apprenticeships. It will need to reward participants for completing the programme and award a certificate of excellence. It will be a huge but transformational challenge to successfully tap into the inactive reservoir of young people and the movement of labour from other sectors.
Key Points:
• Investment is an opportunity to grow the workforce with skills and new enterprises regionally.
• Apprenticeship schemes and training centres are a solid foundation, but a proper task force is needed to fully review capacity, quality and engagement with industry.
• We need a clear idea of where these additional workers will come from.
• The government should reach out to economically inactive young people to help fill the resources gap.
This article originally appeared in The Leaders Council’s special report on ‘The Levelling Up agenda’, published on November 30, 2022. Read the full special report here.
Photo by Vance Osterhout on Unsplash
