BSRIA has launched its White Paper on ‘Bridging the Skills Gap’. The paper asked: ‘What does our industry need from Government to recruit new entrants, upskill the existing workforce and change the diversity of the workforce’?
The paper looked at how to: incentivise; communicate; build skills; start young; promote diversity and the next steps and was written by Jeremy Towler, Senior Manager, Energy & Smart Technologies, BSRIA Worldwide Market Intelligence, in July 2015.
It recommends that it is widely recognised that the construction industry has resourcing and skills issues. The root causes are;
- too many in government do not have an engineering background and so are disconnected from industry;
- schools do not start early on to inform students about engineering;
- there is poor linkage between schools and further education through technical colleges and apprenticeships;
- there is poor communication by our industry about what engineering is and the value it adds to our economy.
The paper was developed for BSRIA’s Diamond Group Forum 6/2015. BSRIA’s Diamond Group consists of a BSRIA network of senior executives.
Adapted from press release by Joseph Green