Member Article

The Construction Industry and Apprentices

By Corey Skeen, Business Development Manager, NCT Skills

So the Conservatives won. Well actually for young people who want to train to be a construction trades person it didn’t really matter. All parties in this May election were committed to the vocational training of 16-18 construction apprenticeship programmes. So for the next five years at least the Government, through the Skills Funding Agency, is committed to paying for construction industry training programs for young people. Fantastic? Not necessarily.

For there to be an apprenticeship, there must be an employer. In other words, no matter how much funding is available, no matter how many young people want to learn to be a construction trades person, without an employer it is all academic (excuse the pun).

Not only does the Government pay for the apprentices training, in the vast majority of cases, the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) will provide an employer who takes on an apprentice with a grant to pay his/her wages. For those that perhaps don’t know the CITB too well, they are an organisation who collect levies from large construction companies and invests those levies in training at all levels. It is a long standing urban myth that you need to pay the CITB levy to be entitled to a grant for an apprentice.

So here we are. Construction apprentices aged between 16-18 are seen, quite correctly, as the future of our industry. So much so that the Government will pay for all of the training costs and the CITB will (in the majority of cases) provide grant funding to pay for the apprentice wage. On top of all that there is such a thing as an age grant and companies for companies who employ less than 50 staff and also who apprentices, up to a maximum of 5 in one year, may qualify for a further grant of £1,500 per apprentice.

So the Government and also the Construction Industry is paying to refresh the talent pool of construction trades people. However, despite the apprentices essentially costing an employer nothing, and despite the many numbers of young people wanting to train for a career as a construction trades person, there are not enough employers.

As a construction industry we should get behind the drive for construction apprentices. After all without people to build things, things will not be built. At NCT Skills, like most training providers, we are committed to finding the best employers to support and enrich our programs. All of the funding and grants are for nothing without the support of employers. If you’re an employer, get involved and support an apprenticeship program. You will not regret it.

For more information on Constructing Excellence in the North East, please contact chief executive, Catriona Lingwood, on 0191-3740233 or catriona@cene.org.uk

ISSUED ON BEHALF OF CONSTRUCTING EXCELLENCE

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by NCT Skills .