The construction skills crisis: A day of reckoning

With ambitious Government targets, the construction sector is under significant pressure to build at pace – but we don’t have enough skilled staff to do the work. Andy Mudie, Head of Marketing UK & Ireland at Siniat, discusses the importance of acknowledging the causes of the skills shortage.

UK construction has undergone irrevocable change in recent years. The regulatory landscape is more complex than ever, planning issues are delaying developments, the industry is adjusting to the new Gateway system and public expectations are increasing. And that’s just the start of the story.

With ambitious Government targets around housebuilding, education, healthcare, prisons and infrastructure, Britain is under pressure to get building at scale to ‘Level Up’ and kick-start economic growth. But we don’t have enough competent people to do the work.

To tackle this, £50bn was announced in the Autumn Budget to support the construction industry in delivery, and a further £40 million has been pledged to help deliver shorter apprenticeships in “key sectors” as part of a move towards a reformed growth and skills levy. All of this sounds good: but it’s too little and it’s too late.

To deliver on Government targets, the sector needs 700,000 new staff and 350,000 new apprentices today.

However, recruiting, training, and retaining young talent will not happen overnight. In fact, CITB recently reported that construction apprenticeship starts averaged 31,000 per year over the last 5 years, and the dropout rate is over 40%. This means apprenticeship starts would need to increase tenfold to provide even a long-term solution, let alone short or mid-term.

This means that the lack of skills is going to be the biggest barrier to the government even getting close to its targets, whether it is 1.5 million homes, quality schools, hospitals, prisons, transport, water and energy infrastructure, it won’t be doable without a new generation of competent people.

How did we get here?

Following both the pandemic and Brexit, a significant drop in younger skilled workers born in the EU paired with a faster-than-expected loss of older experienced workers born in the UK, has led to a double blow to the construction labour supply.

In fact, Siniat recently commissioned research on 200 construction professionals1 that found that 69% of professionals cite the loss of EU workers as the main issue causing the skills shortage, demonstrating that anecdotal feelings on the ground are now resulting in an industry reckoning.

But what’s the solution? Well, ideally, we’d be getting more young people in the UK training in a career in construction and entering the industry as competent, equipped, professionals to take the reins and deliver on the industry’s ambitious targets. But, it’s not that simple.

With almost half of apprentices dropping out before becoming qualified, it’s clear that the education system must be reformed. But what’s the problem? Well, in our recent research we asked professionals in the industry what they thought. We found that 71% of respondents said that a lack of career pathways is the main reason apprentices are dropping out of construction-related courses​ and choosing alternative careers. In addition to this, 62% of respondents stated that a lack of structure in the education system is deterring young talent from remaining in the sector.

This comes as no surprise to many. Apprenticeships and careers in construction haven’t been promoted in the same way as academia and universities over the past few decades. We haven’t embedded construction into school curriculums and there has been no clear-cut route to further education or, following this, secure employment.

It is also no secret that smaller businesses and sole traders can’t afford the cost of an apprentice for the duration of long qualifications – many as long as four years – therefore for those entering the industry, securing an apprenticeship in the first place is an issue in itself. 

Finding the solutions

Challenging or not, we need to attract and retain young talent.

The set-up of organisations such as Skills England – which will bring businesses, training partners and unions together with national and local government to develop a clear assessment of the country’s skills needs – will be a crucial start. These partnerships will facilitate the creation of additional career entry points and new qualifications, while also devising strategies to reduce dropout rates among students.

But it doesn’t end there. The construction industry relies on sole traders and SMEs to train our young people. However, currently, many are unwilling or unable to invest the level of funding and resource required to adequately support an apprentice through training. There needs to be more support for those bringing on apprentices and new talent to ensure recruits are not just present, but competent, especially amid a changing regulatory landscape.

This is a landmark phase in construction and requires a long-term plan, but also urgent action.

And we need to start seeing that action today.

www.siniat.co.uk/en-gb/uk/exap