Events Archives

Open Doors 2025 – Promote Your Events

by Oscar Venus | 17 Jan, 2025 | Events

Recruiting the next generation is a priority if we are to maintain the pipeline of talent coming into the industry, and one of the best ways to showcase what construction has to offer is to get involved with Open Doors. Booking for visitors is now open, and there are already more than 180 events registered to take place across the UK from Monday 17 ‐ Saturday 22 March. With major projects like the expansion of the North Stand at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium, the refurbishment of the Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil, and the development of the Hamilton Dock Hotel within the Titanic Quarter in Belfast opening their doors, we are seeing huge interest from potential visitors, so if you or your organisation is yet to get involved, what are you waiting for!

It’s not too late to register your remaining sites, offices, and manufacturing and training facilities and start promoting them in the local area. Please reach out to schools and colleges, who can book group visits for their students, as well as local community groups supporting new entrants into the industry, to help us show there is a career in construction for everyone.

CITB Skills and Training Conference heading to Wales

by Oscar Venus | 29 Nov, 2024 | Events, Skills

The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) is pleased to be hosting its next Skills and Training Conference in Wales on January 23.

Following the success of CITB’s Skills and Training Conferences in Manchester and Scotland in 2024, this one-day event in Cardiff is the latest step in a revitalised engagement programme for employers and training providers from CITB’s Customer Engagement team. CITB’s executive team will be there to meet employers, training providers and other industry stakeholders.

The conference will share key information and updates, discuss challenges, and outline how the construction industry can work towards narrowing the skills gap.

Construction companies and employers can find out more about hot topics like the Building Safety Act and Social Value, while receiving one-to-one support on accessing CITB funding and services, including the new Employer Network initiative.

Training providers, meanwhile, will have the opportunity to hear about the industry’s major opportunities and meet construction companies and industry trade federations.

Julia Stevens, Engagement Director Wales, CITB, said:

“We’re extremely excited to announce that the CITB Skills and Training Conference is heading to Cardiff in January. It’s an excellent opportunity for construction companies to find out more about the training and funding available, and to discuss how we can collectively address the skills gap.

“We’re also looking to engage more training providers in this important conversation, strengthening our network and creating a more robust future for everyone involved.”

The Skills and Training Conference Wales will be held at voco St. David’s Hotel, Cardiff on Thursday, 23 January 2025.

Want to attend?

For more information and to register

Click Here

CITB Skills and Training Conference heading to Wales

by Oscar Venus | 8 Nov, 2024 | Events, Skills

CITB is hosting its next Skills and Training Conference in Wales on 23 January.

Following the success of CITB’s Skills and Training Conferences in Manchester and Scotland in 2024, this one-day event in Cardiff is the latest step in a revitalised engagement programme for employers and training providers from CITB’s Customer Engagement team. CITB’s executive team will be there to meet employers, training providers and other industry stakeholders.

The conference will share key information and updates, discuss challenges, and outline how the construction industry can work towards narrowing the skills gap.

Construction companies and employers can find out more about hot topics like the Building Safety Act and Social Value, while receiving one-to-one support on accessing CITB funding and services, including the new Employer Network initiative.

Training providers, meanwhile, will have the opportunity to hear about the industry’s major opportunities and meet construction companies and industry trade federations.

Julia Stevens, Engagement Director Wales, CITB, said:

“We’re extremely excited to announce that the CITB Skills and Training Conference is heading to Cardiff in January. It’s an excellent opportunity for construction companies to find out more about the training and funding available, and to discuss how we can collectively address the skills gap.

“We’re also looking to engage more training providers in this important conversation, strengthening our network and creating a more robust future for everyone involved.”

The Skills and Training Conference Wales will be held at voco St. David’s Hotel, Cardiff on Thursday, 23 January 2025.

To book your place, visit https://skillswales.citbevents.co.uk/home

Skills Hub

The Skills Hub brings together details of courses specific to the finishes and interiors sector, making accessing and booking training quick and easy. In addition, it provides information on sector careers, apprenticeships and funding, as well as access to e-learning, CPD and other training.

Click Here

Overview and Slides from FIS Commercial Fit-out Day

by Oscar Venus | 18 Oct, 2024 | Events

On Tuesday FIS hosted its Commercial Fit-out Industry Day (kindly hosted by Hill Dickinson and sponsored by FireDNA.

The current legal and regulatory backdrop

At the meeting FIS CEO, Iain McIlwee covered the current impact of the Building Safety Act on the market, some of the challenges and key findings from the Grenfell Inquiry and how this is likely to impact further change. Sarah from Hill Dickinson helped contextualise this with details of current cases and how things are starting to be interpreted. Key takeaways were that the impact is starting to be felt, but not always in a complex way with difficult compliance issues and risk being forced down. There is a danger things are getting worse before they get better. The free FIS E-Learning course on the Building Safety Act was recommended for more detailed briefing. FIS Training Modules

Technical challenges in the fit-out process

The next session was opened by James Parlour, FIS Technical and Vetting Manager who looked at competency requirements and changes in the Building Regulations. He went on to draw out some of the core details from the recent work FIS has done on understanding systems and compatibility issues within the construction of the fit-out. The presentation was based on the latest guide FIS has collaborated on with a variety of organisations from across construction – https://www.thefis.org/membership-hub/publications/best-practice-guides/walls-as-a-system/. Hannah Mansell of consultancy Adoorability and Elliott Brown of The FDI helped to get into the detail of fire doors in this context. A key stat that was included was that of 40,000 doors surveyed, 32,595 doors failed due to the gap between the frame and leaf not being within tolerance and 14,729 doors failed due to incorrect lineal seal fire stopping method! The key concern raised in questions is it is still the case that we find ourselves on site with partly designed buildings and unresolved details where it is very challenging to prove compliance.

Reframing fit-out and the importance of the Responsible No

The session then moved on to explore the FIS work around the Responsible No, with Anthony Armitage of Thirdway talking about the devil in the detail of contracts and why we need to be pushing harder than ever to revert to standard form contracts unamended. He looked at the most common and concerning areas of amendment and the importance of our sector in getting behind the Conflict Avoidance Process. Iain McIlwee looked specifically at challenges in design intent and the consequences of tendering and procurement not being integrated into the design development process. The session concluded with a small group working session where attendees were asked to consider irresponsible asks and three key requests for our clients. The results of this are being reviewed and will be worked up as part of the development of the FIS Responsible No campaign.

Ahead of lunch the group had a demonstration of the OpenSpace Tool

After lunch the group had a demonstration of the FireDNA Tool and the exciting news that FireDNA has expanded their offering to cover partitions and fire stopping of penetrations.

Sustainability reducing the industry’s environmental impact

The first session of the afternoon looked at how we start to better measure the impact of our works. The Net Zero Carbon Building Standard was presented by Dan Doran, this described how the wider construction sector is starting to adopt a more common approach and how FIS members have fed into this process to ensure that the refurbishment of buildings is effectively considered. The impact of multiple fit-outs is significant!! The need to measure more effectively was picked up by Matt Robinson of Ambit who updated those assembled on an FIS Sustainability Working Group looking at more consistent measurement of impact of CAT A to CAT B transitions (and how starting to adopt standard definitions helps). Joe Croft of Overbury picked up here to look at how CAT B impacts with a new “median fit-out” measure now being available to support benchmarking. Rachel Hoolahan of Orms concluded this session by providing a designer’s perspective pulling out some fascinating case studies and perceptions.

The potential for re-use

The final session was an engaging panel discussion led by Paul Gaughan of Lumybel. The topic of re-use was then explored from multiple perspectives. Nicola Forest provided a contractor perspective and Katherine Adams of Reusefully then looked at the requirements of pre-refurbishment audits. A manufacturers perspective came from Nigel Harvey of Recolight and Tim Phillpot of SAS International and Dilush Selva of TP Bennet provided an architect’s perspective. Whilst challenging, it is clear as we gain greater understanding of the impact that re-use is paramount for helping to hit net-zero targets. Whilst challenging to both commercial models and programmes, real progress is being made. Flavie Lowres (FIS Sustainability Champion) finished the session by presenting progress on the FIS Physical Re-use Hub.

In this session Recolight announced a new opportunity for FIS members to get EPDs produced for their products by opening up their partnership with One Click LCA – online LCA and EPD software. If you are interested in finding out more contact LCA@Recolight.co.uk

Finishing on re-use felt like bringing the event full circle and leant into presentations throughout the day (such as FireDNA), construction is moving to a new model of asset management or perhaps a better phrase coined by Rachel Hoolahan, “custodianship”. Across the themes of Compliance, Safety, Productivity and Sustainability, the need for better collaboration and clearer contracts built around better defined duties, ultimately being clear about what is possible in the time and resource allowed and crucially what is impossible. The session finished with a reminder from FIS CEO Iain McIlwee that whilst our focus is getting rid of the culture of amendment, contracts must still be checked – “the devil is the details and if we are not careful the contracts are the gateway to hell!” FIS offers a subsidised contract review service for members here Contractual and Legal – FIS

https://www.thefis.org/industry-day-fit-out/

Thank you to FireDNA for supporting the day

Navigating the Changing Employment Law Landscape Under a New Labour Government

by Oscar Venus | 8 Aug, 2024 | Events

The first part of 2024 was already full of Employment Law updates that were set to hit business owners. Now, with a new Labour government in charge, there’s even more change set to come in that will dramatically alter the landscape of employment rights.

Wondering how to get prepared? Join our Partner Citation for their ‘Employment law update – What to expect under a Labour government’ webinar on Wednesday 4 September at 10-11am for an exclusive briefing covering:

An overview of 2024’s Employment Law changes.
Current regulations that are already in force and what’s set to come into effect later in the year.

What to expect from the Employment Rights Bill.
The steps you need to take today to get prepared.

Register today to make sure you don’t miss out!

SECURE MY SPOT >

That’s a wrap

by Clair Mooney | 1 Mar, 2024 | Events, Sustainability

Thanks again to all who supported the FIS Conference on Delivering Productivity, Quality and Compliance in the fit-out sector and Putting Net Zero and sustainability first in a practical way at the Workspace Design Show. It was a really interesting couple of days with views from over 30 leading experts blending with hundreds of attendees over the two days. It was a great opportunity to look (collectively as a supply chain) at some of the key opportunities and challenges that we face and how we can individually and collectively change for the better. So much content to digest and consider, but clear themes that we can draw. It really struck me that whilst we covered a wide range of subjects, regardless of the question, the answers were similar and lean back into some core principles. To really step forward we need:

earlier supply chain engagement centred on better risk management and a clear design development process,
we need to look in this at the Design Responsibility Matrix and a better defined process that picks up where the plan of works falls short,
the need to be clearer on what value we are procuring and find ways to step outside of the immediacy of the project,
stepping outside of the project amounts to focussing on a more circular supply chain that loops back rather that overlaps to accelerate
empathy led change needs better communication and more direct engagement with the client on the impact of current behaviours on insurability and sustainability.
Complicated contractual engagements undermine all of above and there needs to finally ne a genuine concerted effort to outlaw the routine amendments that distort risk and mask problems

Above is where we’ll be focussing on in our lobbying work and will be captured in Part 1 of our upcoming Manifesto that we will be releasing to members for consultation in the next week.

See all the photos from the two-day event here

Catch up on the presentations here

See all the photos from the two-day event here