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 charged with bridging the skills gap to ensure Central London has a sustainable commercial and domestic built environment. Its ultimate aim is to ensure London is fit to compete at a global level, helping us to retain our position as leaders in the professional and financial services sectors.
The launch event was a chance for a broad spectrum of industry stakeholders, from educators to construction leaders, to meet and engage with the aim of identifying and addressing these skills gaps. They discussed the current challenges facing the industry, and the actions that the working groups within the Taskforce will need to deliver over the course of the next three years.
FMB London Director Sam Eden fed into the challenges facing SME construction firms, including the increasing cost of skilled labour, how to attract the next generation into construction, as well as some of the challenges facing builders who are looking to re-train in retrofit.
The Corporation has established the SSS Taskforce to bring together stakeholders and utilise their expertise, influence and goodwill to meet these challenges.
The transition to meet Net Zero Carbon by 2030 will reconfigure the workforce, creating new occupations and requiring new competencies amongst existing workers.
These skills challenges threaten to undermine progress towards sustainability and the Taskforce's aspirations for the built environment in Central London.
The Taskforce has three key focus areas:
- Building the evidence base for the planning pipeline, skills gaps, qualifications gaps, identifying barriers to action, and setting the business case for investing in green skills.
- Delivering impactful interventions which directly address the issues raised in the evidence piece. This may involve career and qualification pathways, unlocking financing for upskilling, planning policy, procurement rules etc.
- Delivering an industry engagement campaign to promote reskilling and upskilling among the existing workforce, and raising career awareness amongst Londoners, including those from underrepresented backgrounds.
We will continue to update FMB members over the course of the next three years. As an associate member of the SSS Taskforce, London Director Sam Eden will be in attendance at the next meeting on 6 December. If you would like to be involved or discuss the work of the Taskforce then please feel free to get in touch with Sam using the link below.
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.
