Contractors dispute training research

Construction training in the UK is well below world class levels according to Reading University researchers.

Last week, Mace's Ian Macpher son called for companies to give the staff at least 15 days formal training per year to meet "world class" standards, as he defined them.

But researchers at Reading University have found that the construction industry's training efforts are very poor.

However, specialist housebuilder McCarthy & Stone disagreed with the Reading findings. A spokesman for McCarthy &Stone insisted that construction is a practical industry "not always best met by formal training of the kind used in office based commerce."

He challenged the call for a more formal training approach suggested in the Reading research.

The Reading research found that world class companies like Unilever and Rank Xerox devote 14 days of each year to training managers, while construction staff are lucky to receive one day of training each year.

McPherson said: "If the industry is to do all that Latham and the clients want us to do then we will have to start investing in training."

He said that Mace is committed to providing 14 days of training each year for their staff by the year 2000.

A spokesman for Gleeson said its staff receive three days training each year. "We continued training throughout the session and many parts of our group are going for investing in people. There is an increasing emphasis on training and development throughout the group."

The McCarthy & Stone spokes-man said that the company's own middle and senior managers undergo about two days of formal training per year but also attend business seminars, "toolbox talks", in-house training and brainstorming sessions.

He cited the example of 26 year old Karen Grady, the youngest site manager in Britain, to emphasise that there are different approaches to training.

"After graduating she joined the company as a sub site agent, working her way up to manager by learning the practicalities of the job on site, from older hands," he said. "No amount of time at a desk could have taught her what she learned by doing."

A spokesman for Taylor Wood-row said the company's commitment to training was evidenced by the recent opening of an open training centre.

The company is committed to providing employees a minimum of three days' training at the centre each year and intends to build on that total in the future, he said.