On 4 July 2022 at the Guildhall in London, the Skills for Sustainable Skyline Taskforce (SSS Taskforce) was formally launched. The Taskforce is a three-year project led by the City of London Corporation, which has been tasked with bridging the skills gap to ensure Central London has a sustainable commercial and domestic built environment.
The group met again on 6 December and attendees from many facets of the construction industry reviewed the progress of the key workings groups. Group one focused on collecting evidence on current and future skills gaps, the planning pipeline, barriers, business cases, and training gaps. Whereas groups two and three focused their attention on responding to the evidence and campaigns to upskill/reskill the existing construction workforce and attract new entrants.
The draft recommendations
The SSS Taskforce discussed the key recommendations and provided feedback on whether these align with their expertise in the field. The key recommendations were:
- Upskilling - Carbon literacy, mandatory CPD, commercial retrofit apprenticeship, employer engagement in skills, green competencies/soft skills e.g. collaboration, innovation.
- School engagement - Colleges and universities to present a more attractive picture of construction to young people, schools should promote the built environment as a great place to see tangible work results, courses should be more attractive to young people from under-represented backgrounds.
- Digital - Building data is hard we should promote Colouring London, and we should promote the uptake of digital skills.
- The role of local authorities - Employers need more support with recruitment. We should pursue more effective use of the London Plan, local authority policies including procurement levers etc and s106, to create demand for upskilling. We should encourage Central London local boroughs to collaborate with a more centralised and joined-up approach.
- Long-term, collaborative thinking – We need a long-term skills strategy and investment from Government to boost demand. A long-term skills network/body is needed to promote collaboration. Apprenticeships should be better funded to incentivise them. We need more consistent careers pathways, standards and quality for sustainable buildings and training should be compulsory, and this should be well communicated and should include social value.
FMB London Director Sam Eden gave his support for the findings and highlighted that school engagement will be the key area to ensure we encourage the next generation into a career in construction.
The City of London will now work on some defined actions that will formulate a plan for 2023 and beyond. London Director Sam Eden will be attending the next meeting in Q1 2023.
Authors
Tom Peardon
Tom represents the London membership of the FMB championing their interests to key industry stakeholders in London and providing a support to the membership.
Tom has eighteen years of experience working commercially in construction media including fifteen years on the CIOB publications Construction Management and BIMplus. Tom has also worked on the Architects’ Journal, the Architectural Review and the Association for Project Safety publication the Project Safety Journal.
Tom holds a degree in English and Philosophy from the University of Roehampton.
