Rebuilding the construction industry - Solent Construction Skills Conference

Solent University welcomed a wealth of industry professionals to the ‘Solent Construction Skills’ conference on 18 January to discuss the skills shortage in the industry. Keynotes and delegates responded to the Construction Industry Training Board predicting a shortfall of 225,000 workers by 2027, threatening its ability to build much needed housing, deliver critical infrastructure, and redevelop our towns and cities. This collaborative approach included key stakeholders from national and regional construction companies, local authorities, higher and further education providers, and professional bodies.

The UK construction industry provides a significant contribution to the economy, with a projected revenue of £404.13 billion in 2024, and directly employing 1.8 million. However, despite efforts to tackle perceptions, the industry talent shortage is also affected by the lack of broader representation, which includes women and those who identify as BAME. Until the industry is suitably attractive to these groups, it is always going to struggle to fill the huge skills gap. Keynote speaker Paul Nash, Past President of the Chartered Institute Of Building (CIOB) said “It is clear that our industry has an image problem and that is making it difficult to attract and retain the skills we so desperately need. We need to change that. We need to adopt new and inclusive ways of working if we are to attract and retain the skills and talent that our industry needs. That means challenging our preconceptions about the type of people we need and creating the right working environment for those people to be most effective. It means being prepared to think and act differently.”

Andy Dodson, Conference Chair and construction course leader at Solent University, says: “What is also hindering recruitment is a perceived lack of professionalism and a willingness to put profits over quality. The Grenfell Tower fire, collapsing walls at Scottish schools and more recently the forced demolition of the Hackney Wick tower blocks is not helping the industry's reputation. The public has a right to expect that those carrying out construction and civil engineering work at all levels are competent. With the 2023 amendment to the Building Regulations, enforcing new competence standards on duty holders, companies must take a vested interest in their staff development to ensure that their employees have the correct and current knowledge, skills, behaviours, and experience to carry out their role.”

Other speakers included: Carol Massay, Strategic Customer Relationship Director of Construction at The Access Group; Ros Thorpe, Director of Education at the CIOB; and Emily Dunscombe, Associate at Arup. Speakers presented a variety of steps the industry can be taking now and, in the future, to help address the challenge, including:

• better engagement with local communities and local authorities to fully understand their needs
• greater incentivisation to attract, develop and retain talent
• partnering with educational institutes
• embracing digitalisation
• adoption of more innovative production methods and educating the public that there is a huge variety of roles within construction – It’s not just hard hats and muddy building sites.

To help provide a skills-based workforce, here at Solent we build strong links with industry to help design our courses; provide work experience opportunities; networking; mentoring; and invest in specialist industry-standard facilities to make our students work-ready and future-ready. Along with our standard undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, we partner with a wide variety of companies to deliver a broad range of higher-degree apprenticeships in construction, civil engineering, leadership and management and digital technologies. These apprenticeships offer companies an excellent opportunity to develop new and existing talent. More information can be found on our course pages.