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Construction apprentices need public sector help

As the economic climate has worsened, it has become more challenging for businesses in the UK to retain their apprentices and continue to invest in qualifying the workforce.

But particularly for the construction sector, which has been beset by skills shortages since the 1990s recession when many employers slashed their training budgets, there is now a very real need to retain and recruit trainees so that the next generation of workers is not lost.

To achieve this aim, construction employers will need the active support from public sector organisations, which form the industry’s largest client base and provide a vital revenue stream this year, due to the £7 billion of infrastructure building work which is planned to revitalise the nation’s public services.

The 1990s economic slump had a profound impact on the level of skilled workers within the UK’s construction industry.

In fact, between the years of 1990 and 1993, the total number of trainees in the sector fell from around 41,500 to 29,300: a drop of nearly 30%.

There was also a huge decrease in workers aged under 20: the young apprentices.

Between 1990 and 1993, numbers of employees in this category dropped from just under 170,000 to just over 86,000, a fall of almost half and by far the biggest percentage decline of any age group.

Worryingly for the future, the number of young people in training that have been laid off during this downturn has risen sharply since the start of 2009.

For this reason, and to help ensure that the industry has the requisite skills to cope with the expected upturn in demand for construction services from 2011, ConstructionSkills has launched a host of new initiatives that provide opportunities to public sector organisations to help us retain existing apprentices, and to attract new ones.

The UK’s construction industry is the country’s largest and contributes around 8% of the nation’s GDP. To keep it competitive, and to avoid future skills shortages, we need the public sector to help us retain and recruit apprentices any way it can.

For more information visit: http://www.cskills.org

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