The Increasing demand on the UK’s construction industry

Britains pull activities have arise considerably over the last decade and according to constancy forecasts, the coterminous five years al economic crisis for see to a greater extent large stomachs commencing and play up once again the need for skilled task in the UK.The arrangement already has many another(prenominal) device plans underway which solely lead to an 11% predicted increase ( Olympic shortfall 18/11/07) in construction create between now and 2011. Some of the major(ip) projects that contri yete to the rising supplicates let in a surge in schooldayss construction, increased spending on stock and projects for the London Olympics.The politics has invested in a reported 4.7bn (Financial generation limit 2007 17/11/07) to rebiuld or re untested every secondary school in the country. This is a massive project and dwarfs the construction of the London olympics in comparison.ConstructionSkills is matchless of a series of employer-led sector skills bodies est ablished by political sympathies to suspensor produce enough skilled accomplishmenters to meet the eminent need.ConstructionSkills says that manipulation in the industry will need to rise by some a sixth to 2.8m by 2011, compared with 2.4m in 2005 and 87,600 new recruits will be needed by the industry each year between 2007 and 2011 in order to meet demand.(ConstructionSkills 2007)Infrustructure legal action is also increasing with construction underway for the redevelopment of Kings Cross and Cross rail and the expansion and refurbishment of the Birmingham New mettlesome roadway and Nottingham railway stations. Other infrastructure developments include expire on the Manchester tubing Link, the M6 toll road, the M25. Also the Scottish Executives (Financial Times Limited 2007 17/11/07) planned 3bn capital investment broadcast in strategic road and rail projects and expansion of ports at Harwich, Felixstowe and Great Yarmouth.Aside from all these major developments, there is still as high demand as ever for to a greater extent residential housing. It is reported (UK home supply way at a lower place demand 17/11/07) that Britain is now so short of new houses that an extra 39,000 need to be create each year besides to keep up with the UKs population growth.The bulky paucity of skilled restriction in the UK is undoubtedly a major situationor and could undermine the succeeder of the 2012 Olympics in London. Reports made through the Research by the sector skills councils has revealed the Olympics ineluctably roughly 13,000 construction workers and 1,500 electricians and plumbers a year between now and 2012 (Olympic shortfall 18/11/07).The new Heathrow terminal 5 is another project that highlights the severe skills shortage in the construction sector. The new T5 is estimated to cost 4bn and is one of Europes biggest projects at the moment. Terminal 5 will have roads and rail links built for it and will have over a coulomb aircraft stands as wel l as the tallest control tower in the country. each(prenominal) these projects are desperately in need of skilled labour and considerable investments are being made by the government and big companies to pop the question pedagogy schemes for raft to help overcome these demands.The construction of the Heathrow terminal 5 has influenced BAA, the company that manages Heathrow to collaborate with the learning and Skills Council (LSC) to set up the Heathrow Construction revolve about to train teen people in carpentry, joinery and bricklaying. Many childlike people are now applying to the nurture centre with the influence of high salary opportunities being advertised for a wide range of jobs. David Boyer, a representative of LSC says the key is pictureing something that they want to do and that employers will patch up forand construction fits the bill perfectly. (David Bower 2007)CSV, the UKs largest volunteering and training charity is another organisation that has many Constru ction Training Centres around the country. Its briny aim is to move out on young people from the age of 16 and train them up in a construction field that interests them. The Training Centre on Hornsey Road is CSV Springboard Islington Trusts training facility and is helping to meet the demand from employer training needs arising as a result of the Kings Cross re-generation programme or the Olympics. The Islington training centre has three sectors in the area and solely provides learning for over 600 students (Sky-high salaries for airport construction workers 18/11/07).The main recurrence with the construction industry in the UK at the moment is that activity continues to rise at a rapid pace and with all the training schemes at the minute, not enough skilled craftsman and professional workman are coming out of it to keep up with the demand. There is a reported large number of craftsmen in the UK that dont have the qualifications that are require to work on the Olympic sites etc . Organisations such as steer Skills are committed to helping provide the necessary qualifications to people with the skills but who have not finished an NVQ level 3 for instance. Students doing a construction course at schools or colleges will commonly do a full NVQ which includes gaining technical certificates and national vocational qualifications. Some of the courses involve training on-site to acquire the provide qualifications.The government has also addressed the issue for the need of much skilled labour by introducing new courses at schools and colleges. In 2008, a new diploma in construction and the built environment will be introduced. However many specialist diplomas and GCSEs will not be available until 2013.The other opportunities that are given to young people to work in construction are through the apprenticeship or scholarship schemes. Such schemes are usually offered directly from companies. Its often the top hat pass for young people who do not have the appro priate background. The apprenticeship programme was introduced to the UK in 1994 (as modern apprenticeships). Apprenticeships give the student the opportunity to conduct at college to receive the required qualifications and do work based on the site on a part sequence basis. Apprentices earn composition being in education and for most young people it is a very attractive prospect. It also gives a high rate of employment for those that do it as the companies, for the majority of the time offer the person a full time job after they have completed their apprenticeship. further in the last couple of years, the numbers of apprenticeships have reduced as the interest for them has increased. With over 50,000 applications for 10,000 places (Olympic shortfall 18/11/07), the traditional apprenticeship route cannot meet growing demand. However, to help overcome this problem, there are many colleges today that are involved with big construction companies making it easier for students to fi nd the apprenticeship that interest them.In apprenticeships, the students are usually required to stay in education until they achieve a full NVQ before they are offered a full time job but a scholarship on the other hand requires the student to attend university either part time or full time in order to gain higher qualifications such as a degree to make them eligible for high skilled work afterwards. Scholarships are also offered usually directly from a company and offers to support the student financially by paying the training fees to the university and the company will often offer a the student work placement between their time at university to give them the required acquire in the job.Although there is many efforts being done to overcome the shortage of skilled labour in the UK, it is still evident that yet more(prenominal) than needs to be done to reduce the gap between the demand for skilled labour and the amount of trained personnel coming up every year. In the next fiv e years, there is going to be an increase in activity for the UK construction industry and it is estimated that 87,600 new recruits (Financial Times Limited 2007 17/11/07) will be needed by the industry every year to cope with the work needed.I guess that in order to tackle this problem for the shortage of skilled labour in the UK, more efforts must be made concentrating on the arising of the problem, the training of personal to meet the levels required by the industry. It is a fact that yet not enough programmes are being opened to help encourage young people to look for a career in construction and to educate and train them to the required levels. At the moment, the government is concentrating on opening new training centres in London because of the increasing work being made by the construction of the East London Olympic sites. However, training centres should be opened in more cities around the UK in the next few years to help train up as many people in as short time as possib le to help overcome the shortage of required labour.I imply that more training programmes should be done on development sites such as the Heathrow construction centres helping to train young people. I intend that such programmes help to train and educate a person on the job and give them the required skills in a short time period of time. Other steps that can be taken is to introduce more specialized construction courses at schools and colleges to help encourage young people to choose a career in the construction field. At the moment, a successful example is the Construction and Built Environment Diploma which around 4000 people take every year (Construction Digital 17/11/07)Another step that can be taken is to encourage more construction companies to introduce more apprenticeships and scholarships to young people. This will attract more people to join the construction industry and will produce more high skilled labour to meet demands of the modern day.If the UK construction indu stry remains to be in the situation it is now with a huge shortage of skilled labour then the only solution leave will be to bring in even more migrant workers from east European countries, such as Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania, to fill gaps on grammatical construction sites. This will in effect reduce the building standards and safety on the site just so companies can give out low wages and save costs. In reality, this is very likey to happen but the government will only apply it in a worst shimmy scenerio to overcome the problem.Although it might not be possible to finish all these huge projects in the UK without aquiring the help from migrant workers, we could however train as many people as we can so that less workers from afield are needed, making the UK construction industry stronger and more successful.