Construction firms urged to offer more apprenticeships
The head of an agency that employs apprentices says it is becoming harder to find work for young people.
Construction companies are being urged to provide more apprenticeship opportunities following a government announcement in July of a £287 million investment in colleges offering vocational training.
According to Charmaine Holland, who leads Co-Train, a Reading-based flexi-employment agency registered with the Department for Education (DfE), securing placements for young people in the building sector is becoming increasingly difficult. She emphasized that "increasing employer engagement" is crucial for boosting apprenticeship numbers.
This call comes as the government aims to "end the snobbery around hands-on learning" through its £287 million investment in vocational colleges.
Traditional apprenticeships require companies to employ and pay apprentices for two years, with the government only covering the training costs. Holland acknowledged the challenges firms face in committing to this, particularly as "construction is in a recession at the moment." She also noted that the "pastoral care for their apprentice" involved makes many companies "hesitant to take on that responsibility."
Co-Train, Holland's organization, operates as a flexi-agency across Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, and Buckinghamshire. It allows contractors with insufficient work for a two-year commitment to hire apprentices from the agency on an as-needed basis for a fee. Co-Train acts as the full-time employer, and Holland's role is to match apprentices with employers throughout their two-year training period.
Holland stated, "I really do believe that there's a big lack of vacancies in the sector. We need employers to be more engaged in and around taking on apprentices."
Vocational qualifications are gaining popularity among school leavers. On Thursday, hundreds of thousands of students in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland received their GCSE, BTec, and Cambridge Nationals results. In the UK, young people must continue education or training until age 18 after their GCSEs, and apprenticeships are becoming an increasingly favored option.
Last month, Prime Minister Andy Burnham expressed his desire to ensure teenagers have technical career paths that can compete with traditional university degrees.
For this to materialize in construction, Holland believes apprenticeships need to be integrated into the planning stage, with contractors being mandated to employ them, otherwise "you wouldn't get the contract." She added that while councils possess these powers, they are not utilized frequently enough "to actually make a big enough dent in the skills shortage."
Jacqui Canton, Principal of Abingdon & Witney College, welcomed the national recognition of vocational courses. Last month, ten colleges in the South received a share of the £287 million government funding to enhance their teaching facilities and enable more students to pursue vocational courses such as bricklaying, plumbing, and decorating.
These colleges included Abingdon & Witney College in Oxfordshire, Newbury College in Berkshire, Bournemouth & Poole College in Dorset, Buckinghamshire College Group, and Brockenhurst College, City of Portsmouth College, Havant & South Downs College, Itchen College, South Hampshire College Group, and Sparsholt College in Hampshire.
Abingdon and Witney College is set to receive nearly £2 million, with half allocated to construction education and the other half to motor vehicle education. Principal Canton remarked, "Industry and technology moves on quickly, so this money means we can refresh our equipment and make sure our students have the industry standard skills they need when they go into work."
The funding application required proof of increasing demand from 16-18 year old students for these courses. The college has a dedicated team that collaborates with employers to ensure the curriculum meets industry needs and to arrange work placements.
Canton noted that in some areas, the demand for apprentices surpasses student interest. "IT is a growth area, lots of companies are needing people who can understand artificial intelligence and it's a really well paying career," she said. "Here in Oxfordshire, we also have a lot of employers who really struggle to find business admin apprentices, so there is something out there for everyone."
She concluded, "It's so pleasing to see vocational skills being recognised on a national scale in a way it perhaps hasn't been before, people get successful careers out of this kind of training and we need them for our economy."