Clearview National March 2016 - Issue 172 | Page 58

DOORS&WINDOWS

Tackling the skills
shortage head-on
»»ASK ANYONE IN GLASS AND
glazing what they see as the biggest long-term
challenge facing the industry, and they’re likely
to say the skills shortage.
When the government announced plans to
double the housing budget and build 400,000
new homes late last year, the trade’s reaction
was very revealing – rather than immediately
jumping for joy, many installers, fabricators
and other industry professionals responded
with variations on the theme of “that’s all very
well, but where are the people that are going
to build them?”
Over the past twelve months, a deluge of
reports and studies have argued the skills
shortage is something we all need to be taking
seriously. According to the Hays Global Skills
Index 2015, the construction skills shortage
has worsened for the fourth year in a row. A
survey by the Royal Institute of Chartered
Engineers claims construction is gripped by
the worst skills crisis since 1998 – while the
NSCC State of Trade Survey found 47% of
specialist contractors experiencing greater
difficulty sourcing skilled labour in 2015 than
in recent years.
Its news made all the more disturbing
by Construction Industry Training Board
estimates that we need 44,690 new entrants
just to sustain the industry, a figure
which dwarfs the 7,280 who completed
their apprenticeship training in 2013.
Apprenticeship numbers have soared by 57%
since 2010 – but apprenticeship opportunities
in construction have fallen from 20,000 in
2006 to 15,510 today.
For those of us in the glazing industry, it’s
a huge problem. In all other respects, we’re in

58 » M AR 2016 » CL EARVI E W- UK . C O M

a good place at the moment – the products
are better than ever, and business is good,
fuelled by steady demand at the higher end
of the market. Each new year seems to bring
more innovations that let us make higher
quality products in less time, and open up
fresh ways to colour, finish and personalise
products for consumers who’ve come to love
all things bespoke. But growth, for ourselves
as individual companies, and for the sector as
a whole, will be massively constrained if we
don’t get more talented young people coming
in to the industry.
Government obviously has a significant role
to play in resolving this issue - but we haven’t
got the luxury of sitting around and waiting
for politicians to start taking an interest. What
we can do is meet the challenge head-on as a
sector – using our resources to begin training
the fabricators and installers of the future, not
just to benefit our individual businesses, but
the industry as a whole.
That’s why, Warwick North West has taken
on four new apprentices. Luke, Jack, Ryan
and Gerard have been put to work in our
Liverpool factory, and are learning the trade
under the watchful eye of our experienced
fabricators.

At the beginning of 2015, there were still
943,000 NEETs – 16-24-year olds Not in
Education, Employment or Training – in
England and Wales, many of them talented,
enthusiastic young people dying for a route
into skilled employment. These are exactly
the kind of people we need to be attracting
into glass and glazing, and apprenticeships
provide a mutually beneficial way of doing
that – young people get on-the-job training,
while we get their energy, enthusiasm and
fresh thinking.
We’ve also just signed up the Armed Forces
Covenant. Every year, thousands of skilled,
dedicated, passionate people leave the armed
forces for civilian life, and many sadly struggle
to find secure employment. As a business, we
want to support those individuals, and are
committed to doing everything we can to help
them secure jobs at Warwick North West.
Of course, apprenticeships and other
employment schemes are only part of the
solution – it’s clear that schools don’t do
enough to promote vocational skills, and that
in society more generally we’re still dealing
with the stereotype that manual careers
somehow aren’t fit for the best and brightest
students. But they do offer a way in which
businesses like ours can step up to the plate
and make a solid, lasting contribution to the
future of the industry.
Call 0151 933 3030 or visit
www.wa rwicknorthwest.co.uk