Rant: ConstructionSkills Mark Farrar
00:00 18 Jul 2007
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Skills have been top of the government's agenda for several years now, recently cemented into place with Gordon Brown making it one of his priorities. Last year's Leitch Review painted a bleak picture of skills levels across the country, and an even bleaker future if we don't take action soon.
The Skills Pledge is an early initiative coming out of Leitch, which aims to encourage more companies to invest in training, and the government is currently running a major advertising campaign in support of this drive.
The 'carrot' we have in construction is an industry-funded grant system. A record £140m in CITB-ConstructionSkills grant is available for registered employers to pay for training and achievement of recognised qualifications in the coming 12-months. Along with engineering construction, we are the only sector to still benefit from such a system - so why aren't companies making the most of it?
The latest National Employer Skills Survey shows that 58% of a representative sample of construction companies invested in training in the previous 12 months. And although the industry doesn't yet have a fully embedded training culture, we're not too far behind other sectors, where an average of 65% of firms invested in training in the same period.
But what this doesn't tie up with is the number of construction companies claiming CITB-ConstructionSkills grants. Of 75,000 registered employers last year, only 27% claimed grants. More baffling is the 53% of registered employers who did not have to pay any levy: all are eligible to claim grants, yet only 20% did.
Grants are available for training new recruits as well as existing employees, and a training and development plan enables you to claim grants for almost any training that benefits your business. Responding to customer feedback, we're making our grants scheme even simpler. So don't delay: visit www.cskills.org/grant or get in touch with your local office and see how you could benefit.
Mark Farrar
ConstructionSkills