CPA reveals skills slump

by Keren Sall



Only 20 employees out of the 70,000 employed by the plant hire industry are currently enrolled onto the National Vocational Qualification supervisory and management courses.

The Construction Plant-hire Association revealed this shocking figure together with colleges and warned that the industry's reluctance to invest in people and training would exacerbate the skills crisis.

Julien Rychlik, chairman of the CPA told CJ that the rapidly ticking demographic time-bomb will mean there will be fewer and fewer people and that the worsening shortage will apply not just to recruits at the shopfloor level but also to a severe lack of bright young professionals who are keen to climb the managerial ladder.

In the past the plant industry has been able to poach people from rivals and other industries but the demographic trends showing an ever-decreasing pool of young people mean this will be no longer possible. "Firms should not be saying 'can we afford to invest in people,' but 'can we afford not to,'" he warned. Planning for the future, for small to medium firms which make up the bulk of the plant hire industry seems to consist of 'how are we going to pay next week's wages.' Vision for the future does not appear to be part of their make up and many do not realise that the greatest asset any of them has is its workforce - both line workers and managers."

Danny Griffin, owner of London and Home Counties plant hire firm said: "In the past we could poach from contractors who had their own in-house plant operation but since they have been sold off there is no longer that resource available."

He cited lack of career progression as a major reason for young people being disenchanted with the plant industry. "The nub of the problem in a family firm like ours is that people can't see a career path and a driver could stay a driver and a fitter and a fitter."

And it is not as if the plant hire industry is able to recruit bright young things from outside to climb up the managerial ladder. Speedy Hire, which has over 100 outlets has struggled to persuade young people with A-levels to join the company. John Brown, its chairman, explained: "It is practically impossible to get graduates even though our shops make a lot of money. It is an image problem. We have visited schools trying to persuade pupils who can't afford to go to university to join us as management trainees without much success."

However, the fact that people want to grow with the right company is proved by the success of Hewden Stuart's recent recruitment campaign to attract management trainees. Around 300 staff requested application forms following a depot-wide poster campaign and an article about the programme featured in the company magazine. Hewden's director of human resources Ian Witherington said: "We received 151 applications and the decision to interview all applicants stemmed from the very high standard of entries that were received. We took the decision to recruit internally because employees have a clear understanding of our markets and customers' expectations. Around 48 candidates were selected for further assessment and out of those 20 people went on to be chosen for our management trainee programme."