Grasping the nettle

It is a hackneyed truth to say the issues of training and recruitment are closely linked.
Without basic training, potential recruits are placing themselves at the back of the queue for any employment opportunities that come along; and without a decent training regime, companies will struggle to recruit and retain staff of the required calibre.
However, the current climate of skills shortages and an increasingly mobile labour force means the link between training and recruitment has become even more explicit. This is clearly recognised in the steps taken by Birmingham-based Now Recruitment agency, which has undertaken to supply only workers who are certified through the Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS).
"We're working on the basis that we want 100% of those on our books to be CSCS card holders," explains operations director Mark Walton. "This will obviously be difficult because of the nomadic nature of the workforce - new people will join us who may not have the card. Still, even if we can't have everybody qualified all of the time, we will have sufficient CSCS cardholders available to meet the demands of our clients."
The system put in place by Now applies to already experienced workers who are seeking the CSCS Experienced Worker card.
"The training consists of a three-hour health and safety talk, which provides a basic grounding in what you can and can't do, and then you have to sit the CSCS touch screen health and safety test," says Walton. He adds that the whole process takes about six weeks - two weeks to arrange a test date after the initial health and safety talk, followed by another four weeks before the card is issued.
He points out that, far from just insisting workers organise themselves to undertake the training and pass the various tests, Now arranges this, as well as organising funding through the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) grant scheme. "The only money the employee has to pay is the £20 for the new card once they've achieved it."
But Now's support does not finish once an experienced worker card has been received. "These [cards] are valid initially for three years and if, during that time, the worker needs to take other modules to gain their trade-specific card - through the On-Site Training and Assessment (OSAT) and NVQ system - then we'll arrange the funding for this as well."
Demands from clients
Walton makes it clear that the motivation for this move comes from the demands of the clients, and in particular the deadline set by the Major Contractor's Group (MCG) for a fully CSCS certified workforce by 1 January 2004. "The reaction from clients has been very positive. The pressure is on them to meet the deadline, and we're helping them in this. This is the case whether the workers are employed directly by members of the MCG, or by subcontractors that end up working on MCG sites."
Walton reckons the company has so far managed to ensure around 60% of its workforce is qualified. "We've been doing around 20 to 25 people a month, and we're now at a critical time for meeting the deadline."
The flip-side of recruitment is retention, a long-standing problem for some in construction.
The opportunity for a structured career with progression through the ranks towards involvement with management is not something that has always been strongly associated with the industry.
However, this trend has been bucked by London firm Holloway White Allom. Half of its current management team started as apprentices with the company. Martin Thorpe, contracts manager, followed just this pattern, starting as an apprentice when he left school at 16.
Not that Thorpe says he was planning his career from the moment he joined.
"At the start you're interested only in your actual job - being the best carpenter or bricklayer you can. It's good to have ambition but it's a big jump from school to actually working in the construction industry. You should take things one step at a time."
Career path for progression
Thorpe acknowledges, however, that the steps have to be available in the first place if you want to make progress. At Holloway White Allom there is a mapped path for a career progression - from craft foreman to foreman, then site manager/site agent, project manager and contracts manager.
In addition to the core training required for any given trade, other options include courses in industrial relations and health and safety, as well as outward-bound activities. "This is all in addition to experience, of course," says Thorpe.
This specific structure is combined with an attitude that allows employees to develop as much or as little as they wish along this pre-determined path. Personnel managers and line managers also endeavour to see all staff once every two to three months to ensure they are satisfied in their work and with the opportunities available to them.
"There's training on offer to help you take the next step, and there's encouragement to do this, but you need personal motivation as well. It's a combination of mutual encouragement and personal ambition. There's no desire to promote people beyond their abilities or confidence levels."
Thorpe says salaries now reflect the attitude that experience and competence gained in a particular discipline, at whatever level, should be recognised and rewarded.
"In the 1970s and 1980s wages tended simply to be defined by your trade. Now there's more recognition of the value of your contribution, regardless of whether you want to take the next step. A good site manager well rewarded is better to us than an unwillingly promoted project manager who doesn't do their job that well."
Nevertheless, Thorpe points out that the structured system of career progression is recognition of the fact that managers with a trade background are an important element of a successful company. "An academic background is fine, but you need a good proportion from the trades."
Yet it is an academic background that is the hot topic at Willmott Dixon. The company has recently recruited three graduates who do not have a degree in a construction-related subject (one has a degree in IT, one in environmental science and one in business).
Industry-wide scheme
What makes this unusual is not just their non-construction backgrounds, but the fact that recruits are part of an industry-wide scheme to offer a structured post-graduate entry scheme into the construction industry.
Whereas other professions, such as the law and accountancy, have long thrived on welcoming graduates with diverse first degrees, this is a first step by construction to try to compete on an even footing.
The three trainees at Willmott Dixon are in fact part of a larger group of 11, spread across different contractors, who are working towards the award of a post-graduate diploma in construction.
Over a maximum of three years (shorter for those with some previous construction-related academic experience) and following a curriculum centred on a framework provided by the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), the three trainees will undertake 12 modules combining practical experience and classroom learning.
This replaces the previous ad-hoc arrangements for graduate entrants to construction, who either had to work towards a masters or study for a second degree.
"The course content is very similar to existing construction-related degrees, but the delivery is very different," says Chrissie Chadney, Willmott Dixon's head of personnel, training and development. "It's important to realise that we're not talking about undergraduates, but young adults with a wide range of experience."
With the backing not just of the CIOB but also the CITB and universities including Anglia Polytechnic, Central Lancashire and Greenwich, Chadney says she has no concerns over the quality of the end product. Indeed, she says the aim eventually will be to attract as many as a third of Willmott Dixon's yearly intake of around 25 management trainees via this route.
"There just aren't enough high quality construction graduates out there, which is in part because there aren't enough 17 and 18-year-olds attracted to take up construction degrees in the first place," Chadney says. "However, the perception of the industry is very different at the age of 23."
At the other end of the age spectrum, Jim Finch, training manager at building contractor Rok, is trying to convey the same message - that construction can now be perceived as providing a structured, interesting and varied career.
Finch was the project manager for the construction of a performance area and covered walkway at St Mark's Junior School in Shirley, near Southampton.
Young Engineers Club
The unique aspect of this project was its involvement of the school's Young Engineers Club for children aged seven to eleven. Although Finch recognises the improbability of direct recruitment from such a young audience, he says the way the industry portrays itself to children at this age is vital.
"At the age of 11, youngsters have no barriers in their head about what they can and can't do - they're very receptive, much more so than just a few years later, when they're 15," he explains. "At 11 they want to get involved and get their hands dirty. By becoming involved they, and perhaps just as importantly their parents, become more aware of the different aspects of the industry and what it has to offer."
With such wide-ranging, imaginative and enthusiastic approaches to highlighting the diverse branches of construction, perhaps the industry can at last look forward to the day when its recruitment and training woes are a thing of the past.<F0A8>