CECA members recently had the privilege of being joined by Lauren Edwards MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Skills, to discuss the challenges and opportunities for unlocking the skills pipeline for infrastructure delivery in the UK. Ben Goodwin, CECA’s Director of Policy and Public Affairs, reflects on the key talking points.
The Government’s agenda for infrastructure delivery is a busy one, with significant investment taking or set to take place in clean energy, transport , and in water, where industry is gearing up for the biggest overhaul of the sector since privatisation.
A key component in all of this is creating the jobs and skills to enable delivery and the challenge in doing so is a huge one. For clean energy alone, the Committee on Climate Change estimates that by 2030 up to 725,000 net new jobs could be required to build the UK’s low carbon energy system.
The roundtable was kicked off with an introduction from CECA’s Regional Director for Yorkshire & the Humber Jemma Carmody, who leads the Association’s work on our core pillar of ‘Skills – Creating A Skilled Workforce’, who set out industry’s position on the need to close the infrastructure skills gap.
A key focus for CECA has been working with the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) to develop a plan mapped to the National Infrastructure and Construction Pipeline, that sets out in detail what the skills need is over the long-term, alongside the interventions for getting this in place.
We’ve also been working with the Construction Leadership Council, which through its Construction Skills Mission Board is aiming to:
- Bring new people into the industry
- Support apprenticeships and completions
- Build digital and green skills
- Facilitate a joined-up approach between employers, clients, and colleges
Highlighting this work helped to set the scene for Rochester and Strood MP, Lauren Edwards, who talked about the need to get the Government’s new apprenticeship system firing to deliver a capacity boost in infrastructure jobs and skills.
The APPG Skills Chair also talked about the role of Skills England and the need for the agency to find the most effective ways to strategically link the Government’s policy missions with skills training and development for the infrastructure sector. Delivery of the Government’s clean energy aims and plans to build 1.5 million homes were both examples in this respect.
The broader roundtable discussion also highlighted some key priorities. Not least to get the regional training alliances that are being delivered as part of CITB’s Infrastructure Sector Skills Plan up and running at speed. The idea is these alliances will bring employers from across the infrastructure sector and training providers together to identify skills needs and aggregate demand to shape local training provision.
Other areas of discussion focused on the need to redouble efforts our collective efforts to promote civil engineering to school pupils, highlighting both the academic and technical routes into the profession without favour.
The complexity of the planning system was also highlighted as an indirect challenge for skills investment and development. In this respect planning workforce needs is a challenge for contractors who need greater pipeline visibility and certainty of workload, and a streamlined planning system that delivers projects to market more efficiently.
The roundtable was a useful precursor to the Autumn Budget that will be delivered on the 26 November. We’ll be looking out for investment announcements and other policy interventions in the infrastructure skills space that will support CECA members in addressing their workforce challenges, ultimately enabling them to continue to deliver the vital infrastructure that keeps the economy moving. CECA members will be briefed on the contents of the Budget, and what it means for their businesses, on the day of its publication.
CECA’s representation to the Autumn Budget can be found here.