Page 36 - Regional Employment & Skills Plan

34
3.2 Construction
Defining the Sector
The Construction sector is defined as being engaged in the preparation of land and the construction, alteration and repair of buildings, structures and other property. For this reason, the sector is one of importance globally, nationally and locally.
The latest statistics indicate that Wales is expected to see an annual average output growth of 6.2% between 2017 and 2021. This growth in Wales is expected to exceed that for the UK as a whole by a considerable margin of 1.7%.40
Regionally, the sector employs approximately 35,400 people in 4,180 local business units. On average this level of employment is forecast to grow by 2.7% per year, with demand expected to be strongest for Construction trades supervisors and civil engineering operatives.41
3.2.1 Employer Evidence
Recruitment and Retention
A concern expressed by employers is the detrimental effect of the perceived uninformed and poor perception of the sector held by learners and parents. This restricts the number of talented individuals recruited to the sector. An increased effort to positively promote the sector and the opportunities it presents by careers advisors and schools generally could mitigate this issue.
Furthermore, evidence shows that although many people are training in the sector, a large proportion are not progressing, this is termed as a pre-Apprenticeship ‘drop-off’. Too many learners are entering at level 1 and not continuing their training on completion. As a highly vocational sector there is therefore a need to increase efforts in the promotion of Apprenticeships as a viable and rewarding training route.
The lack of attraction of a high calibre student to the sector is a further issue, an increased focus on quantity of learners over quality of learners poses challenge as the sector fails to recruit and then retain the talented individuals needed for the progression and development of the sector.
These issues are particularly pertinent given the ageing nature of the sectors’ workforce. CITB states that more than 400,000 individuals will retire from the sector in the next 5-10 years. Failing to recruit new entrants to the sector therefore would be potentially incredibly damaging to the sector and its skills base.42
• ‘19% (equivalent to 406,000 people) of the UK Construction workers aged 55+ are set to retire in the next 5-10 years;
• 24% (equivalent to 518,000 people) of UK Construction workers aged 45–54 are set to retire in the next 10-20 years;
• 37% of the UK Construction workforce is self-employed and 23% (equivalent to 182,800 people) of those are set to retire from the industry in the next 5-10 years.’
40 http://www.citb.co.uk/documents/research/csn%202017-2021/csn-wales.pdf 41 http://www.citb.co.uk/documents/research/csn%202017-2021/csn-wales.pdf 42 http://www.citb.co.uk/news-events/uk-construction-skills-time-bomb/
Regional Employment & Skills Plan South West & Mid Wales Sector Profiles