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A report by SummitSkills, the Sector Skills Council for building services engineering, estimates that up to 10% of work in social housing and 55% of work in private housing may be postponed or cancelled as a result of the recession. In Impact of the recession on the building services engineering sector, SummitSkills suggests that between 67,000 and 154,000 jobs are at risk in the contracting industry.
SummitSkills' Sector Skills Agreement (SSA) and update reports identify skills requirements through the recession and up to 2013. The SSA identifies the need for those in the sector to train to achieve appropriate competence levels and enable productivity and growth to continue.
The SSA findings are strengthened by a Chartered Institute of Building survey that revealed of the 1,182 members polled, 77% felt there was already a skills shortage and 78% felt that a loss of skills would hinder the industry's recovery when the economy improves. Many large and publicly funded projects are demanding workers hold proof of qualifications in the form of a SKILLcard or registration with approved competent person schemes, which can only be achieved with the right experience or qualifications.
In an increasingly competitive environment, companies must invest in staff training and development to ensure their workforce has the necessary skills to compete, now and in the future. The skills that will be needed when the UK recovers from the recession are likely to be in environmental and renewable energy technologies, which need to be learned now in anticipation of the economic upturn.
To provide evidence of the benefits of apprenticeship schemes to employers in the sector, SummitSkills has recently published a report - Apprenticeship cost-benefit analysis. This reveals potential savings on larger projects of between 10 and 16% on the overall labour costs when using apprentices, with minimal changes to the overall skills of the team.
The report also demonstrates cost savings on smaller domestic scale projects. In addition to the actual labour cost saving it also calculated the displacement saving, where using an apprentice with the appropriate skills freed up the craftsman's time to make the contract progress quicker. It is, however, essential that health and safety issues are taken into consideration and the apprentice is properly supervised throughout.
In challenging economic times it is critical to grow and develop talent, to aid faster recovery and ensure the effects of this recession are not felt as heavily in future years. Apprentices provide an important part of this solution with opportunities to develop and grow skills, along with a sound financial argument.
