Sex and booze campaign boosts recruitment figures

The total number of new recruits to the industry last year surpassed the annual target by 8,000, according to Sir Michael Latham, chairman of the Construction Industry Training Board.

"About 64,000 left the industry last year and about 84,000 joined," said Latham. He noted that the board's whole sector workforce development plan suggests the industry needs to attract 380,000 new people over the next five years - or about 76,000 a year.

Although the target was achieved last year, Latham said "it is not going to be easy to achieve year-on-year".

"If we are to keep up that demanding progress over the next five years, we need to make construction a much more attractive industry to young people and their families. That means a full commitment to the Respect for People initiative."

The CITB chairman added: "If we are going to attract young people into the industry, we need to talk to them in language which means something to them."

In this respect, he claimed that the training board's controversial "sex and booze" recruitment advertising campaign had hit the mark.

Latham also reported that the CITB is well ahead of its health and safety testing target. The testing total is expected to exceed 100,000 by the end of the year against a target of 80,000.

On the other hand, the board was short of its target for the On-site Assessment and Training scheme (OSAT). Only 1,915 achieved NVQ level 2 under OSAT in 2001 against a target of 4,900. But a major surge in the figure is anticipated in the period 2005 to 2007.