An innovative project to create an online digital "brokerage" platform to link prospective trainees, employers and clients with construction training courses is to receive two years’ funding from Innovate UK.
The SkillsPlanner project is being coordinated by members of Ethos VO, a network of ”social entrepreneurs”, with support from contractors, local authorities, the further education sector and the Department for Work and Pensions.
The grant was awarded under an Innovate UK funding scheme called "Solving urban challenges with data."
Rebecca Lovelace, who runs consultancy Circle Three and is a member of Ethos VO, explained that the project plans to create an online “brokerage” service by matching up data on training courses and skills needs.
The platform will bring together data on courses and available places from FE colleges; contractors’ skills and training needs; and local authorities contract pipelines, which will in turn generate demand for training and apprenticeship places.
Lovelace told Construction Manager: “We will identify what data is available, certify the data, cleanse and process it. We’re looking at how to create a sustainable resource, and how to make it a national platform.
“The data needs to be live, and the platform needs to be user-friendly,” she added.
Lovelace added that SkillsPlanner would eventually be offered as a subscription service to public bodies and contractors at “fair and moderate” cost. But individuals seeking construction training will be able to use the website at no cost.
The SkillsPlanner team also wants to work collaboratively with other organisations in the field.
“We are working together in London with the Construction Industry Training Board to capture data on skills provision and demand. We are also working with Class Of Your Own, so that the data can be shared with schools,” said Lovelace.
As well as the £1.3m grant from Innovate UK, there will be investment from project partners that include contractors Laing O’Rourke, Costain, Dragados and BAM Nuttall.
