A new data platform called “SkillsPlanner” that would link up FE colleges, construction employers, clients that mandate construction training via contracts and local “skills brokerage” services could be on its way.
A consortium put together by an organisation called Ethos VO, a collective of “social entrepreneurs”, last month put in a £1m bid for government funding via an Innovate UK programme.
The team’s bid for the “Solving urban challenges with data” funding call had already reached the shortlist, and a funding decision is due at the end of April.
Ethos VO has brought together CITB, the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, around 10 “major construction employers”, six Further Education colleges, and five local authorities.
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“SkillsPlanner” will link up open data in a user-friendly platform that can be accessed by various organisations, explains Rebecca Lovelace, who runs Circle Three Consulting and is a member of Ethos VO.
“It will integrate data on employers’ needs, for colleges on the skills they’re providing versus the skills employers need, and a be a user-friendly live platform. We’ve already had several local authorities saying ‘yes please, we need this’.”
“There’s a mismatch between skills supply and skills need, but once you’ve got the data you’re better able to deal with the situation. We have this vision of employers putting in their needs – because of their contract pipeline – and colleges can access that to understand the future skills requirements in the area.
She also anticipated that colleges using the online SkillsPlanner service might be able to collaborate on joint courses. “If we can collaboratively use data and make it live and accessible, then we can deliver interventions that don’t just work in isolation.”
Lovelace says that the idea for SkillsPlanner originated through conversations with an Ethos colleague working on a project to harness data for a project to re-energise run-down high streets.
“A bright spark realised we could apply similar principles to construction. At Ethos we see our role as creating a ‘collaborative consensus’ to bring all the right stakeholders to the table.”
Circle Three has recently been involved in initiatives to create recruitment channels for service leavers to join the construction industry. Lovelace was previously a community development manager with Lend Lease, where she helped set up the BeOnsite construction training organisation.
