Sir John Armitt has urged the industry to focus on raising its margins and creating an “investment fund” to train the future generations of technicians and professionals it will need in order to thrive and develop.
Armitt, keynote speaker at the CIOB’s Inspiring the Future conference, was asked by CIOB trustee Mike Foy how the industry could ensure that it wasn’t still talking about skills gaps in 2024 or 2034 – much in the same way it was doing in 1994 or 2004.
Armitt’s earlier key note speech had urged the industry not to let the skills gap “fester” as this would be bad for the economy, bad for young people and bad for the country’s future, and he stressed the importance of employers offering work experience to challenge negative perceptions of construction.
But in response to Foy’s question, he replied: “If the industry is bidding at zero margins and hoping to get margins out of procurement gains, that doesn’t leave any money for training. We will not get the quality of training… at 1% net margins. We need to get more money allocated to it, and get that money built into the price, because clients are getting a better quality building, or a better product.”
"In oil and gas, for instance, there are much higher margins, and more to invest in taking the industry forward. The alternative is that in 20 years’ time, we will be back here having the same discussions. If we just continue to scrape by, we will be at the same point in 20 years as we are today."
Sir John Armitt
“In oil and gas, for instance, there are much higher margins, and more to invest in taking the industry forward. The alternative is that in 20 years’ time, we will be back here having the same discussions. If we just continue to scrape by, we will be at the same point in 20 years as we are today.”
Armitt, chair of the Olympic Delivery Authority, had earlier recapped a depressing list of recent statistics on the skills gap, including the fact that the number of people taking up construction apprenticeships in 2012-13 was a third lower than the number in 2008-09; while more than two fifths of FMB members have said their businesses struggle to recruit bricklayers and joiners.
“In broad terms, the message about opportunities in construction is not getting through. Construction is seen too widely as a job for somebody else,” he said.
“The problem is what people see when they walk down the street. The stereotype is a scruffy builder on his mobile phone drinking endless cups of coffee. But young people need to be aware of all the faces of construction, it’s not just a job for the non-academic. Unless we dispel all these misconceptions, we will not attract all the talent we need.”
Armitt stressed the role of work experience programmes, that would not just give individual students a taste of construction but potentially influence their friends and family to rethink construction.
He also described a programme run by the Olympic Delivery Authority to train pupils in 80 schools as “construction ambassadors”, who visited sites and employers then gave a presentation on their experience to their peers afterwards. “In one school, after a peer presentation, more than a third put up their hands when asked if they might be interested in a career in construction."
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He added: “We need to find more ways of communicating with young people on their territory and in their language.”
Armitt’s point about much higher investment in training in the oil and gas sector was later reiterated by Lois Wilson, graduate recruitment manager at Turner & Townsend, and a panellist at a Q&A session. In her previous role in the oil and gas sector, she told Construction Manager, there was never any difficulty attracting resources to recruitment and training.
“At Turner & Townsend, it’s improved since I joined, but there’s still a difference,” she noted.
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