Labour Archives - Page 6 of 7

It’s about collaboration… Interior System Installer Pilot

by Oscar Venus | Jun 16, 2021 | Labour, Main News Feed, Skills

In August 2020 one of our manufacturer members was approached by the Awarding Organisation NOCN for help in preparing test materials for the Interior Systems Installer Apprentice End Point Assessment (EPA) and brought this to the attention of the FIS Skills Board. In November2020 FIS Skills Board members produced Risk Assessments and Method Statements for the end test and in January 2021 FIS brought together an EPA Development Group of Employers, Suppliers, Training Providers and NOCN. The materials developed to assess both options of this apprenticeship, Dry Liners and Ceiling and Partition Installers will soon be ready for use.

This work was facilitated by FIS with the direct support of Joe Cilia FIS Technical Director and George Swann FIS Skills and Training Lead. This would not have been achieved in the time frame allowed without the support, time, materials and expertise freely provide by FIS members. Many thanks go to: British Gypsum, Roseville, Stortford Interiors, Measom Dryline, Time Limit Interiors, Errigal, Komfort, North West Skills Academy, the Construction End Point Assessment Company and the staff at NOCN.

This is an example of collaboration at its very best. If you would like to be involved in the work of FIS, join the Skills Board or one of the Working Groups, please give us a call.

Scotland wants EU citizens to apply to the UK Government’s EU Settlement Scheme

by Clair Mooney | Jun 3, 2021 | Labour

This week, Select has relaunched its Stay in Scotland campaign, encouraging EU citizens to apply to the UK Government’s EU Settlement Scheme.

EU Citizens living in Scotland, who have not yet applied, are being urged to apply now to avoid missing the deadline of 30 June, so they can carry on living, working and studying in Scotland. Irish citizens and people with indefinite leave to remain do not have to apply.

FIS Chief Executive Iain McIlwee said:

“With the potential for further labour shortages and need to increase our recruitment domestically just to stand still as we can no longer rely on new cohorts of skilled EU workers to plug the gaps, it is vital that we communicate with workers here to ensure that they are aware of and have completed their application through the settlement process. The June deadline is a hard stop. Whilst this campaign is focussed on Scotland, it is relevant to all firms across the UK”

With the deadline fast approaching, you can get support to apply now at mygov.scot/stayinscotland

FIS plans to address labour shortage

by Clair Mooney | Apr 22, 2021 | Labour, Skills

There have been reports of up to 60% labour not being available by some FIS members. With this in mind, FIS has two projects specifically designed to attract people into the sector. In addition, the Governments Plan for Jobs has four initiatives that rely on employers’ willingness to provide work placements and/or for T-Level students industrial placements.

Critical to the success of these two projects is the commitment from employers to give individuals a chance by offering work placements.

FIS Build Back Programme
This programme accepts individuals from a range of backgrounds including HM Forces Career Progression candidates and clients put forward by the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP). To help prepare the candidates for work, each learner receives training in drylining finxing and boarding and are supplied with personal protective equipment, a set of tools and a CSCS Provisional Card. The candidates just need an opportunity to show employers what they can do during a work placement. This may ultimately lead to a full-time work opportunity and will also add new talent to the workforce.

There are currently 43 HM Force Career Progression candidates that have received Fixer Boarder training available for work placement now. Please contact Catherine Bullough by email: catherinebullough@thefis.org for details.

FIS Kickstart Programme
This is part of the Government’s Plan for Jobs; we help employers fill their new vacancies. By working with the DWP, FIS can help to source suitable candidates for a six-month job placement within the business. Once successful candidates are placed with the company, the employer is entitled to claim a support grant of £1500 plus the national minimum wage salary payments based on 25 hours per week.

For more details on these projects and to register your interest in offering work placements please contact Catherine Bullough, Skills and Training Coordinator on 07900 083325 or email catherinebullough@thefis.org

FIS Workforce Survey shows 38% of firms experiencing labour shortages

by Oscar Venus | Apr 9, 2021 | Labour, Skills

In March FIS ran a snap survey to look at workforce trends in the wake of the new points based immigration system. The survey reports that 38% of companies are currently experiencing a labour shortage, with over 60% of contractors predicting shortages as work picks up over the summer. This number increases significantly when we look at the larger companies (those with greater than £5million turnover), here 59% are already experiencing shortages and 74% are predicting worse to come. Dryliners head the list of concerns followed by ceiling fixers, partitions installers, plasterers and carpenters and joiners.

The report shows that the UK finishes an interiors sector remains heavily reliant on EU workers with around half of all companies relying on EU workers for more than 20% of their workforce and 17% of firms reporting that EU workers account for more than 60% of their workforce.

The report also gives insight into employment and use of gangs and agencies in the sector. Across all contractors, 44% of the workforce is employed, 42% work as labour only sub contractors with gangs providing 11% of the contingent workforce and agency workers making up the final 3%. Again this shifts as we look to the larger (>£5m turnover) sector with employment accounting for 26% of the workforce, labour only sub-contractors 39%, gangs 30% and agency workers providing the final 5%.

Commenting on the numbers FIS CEO, Iain McIlwee stated:

“These numbers are cause for concern and we will keep our focus on supporting the rapid scale up in training infrastructure that is required to meet this seismic shift in the way we are going to need to recruit and manage our workforce going forward. We will also continue the dialogue with the Home Office to try and get some common sense applied to the process to ensure we can evolve effectively to the new world order dealing with real world problems rather than political concerns and waiting to see what the official data will tell us when the facts are staring us in the face.”

Read the full FIS Statement on Skills Shortages here

FIS gathering data on immigration and potential labour shortages

by Iain McIlwee | Mar 25, 2021 | Labour, Main News Feed

To support ongoing engagement with the Home Office and the wider sector FIS is tracking the impact of changes to the labour market.

FIS has repeatedly raised concerns that interior systems installers (dryliners, ceiling fixers, partitions installers etc) have not been included as an eligible occupation for the skilled worker route in the new UK Points Based Immigration System and that no construction workers have been included on the shortage occupation list. This omission means that from the 1st July, if an EU worker (excluding Ireland) has not applied to work in the UK through the Settlement Scheme, they will not be eligible to work.

Across the sector, at the start of 2020, it is estimated that the workforce relied on some 40% of trade operatives from the EU. As a consequence of these changes, the annual recruitment target for UK national has doubled, putting huge strain on the training infrastructure (particularly against the background of COVID-19) and for every 5% of EU workers that opt not to return to work in the UK or continue working in the the UK beyond the 1st July we see this target double again.

With reports of Labour Shortages already as things start to pick up in 2021, we are calling on companies in the sector to complete our short market survey.

Please complete the survey here.
For labour support issues, such as preparing for Right to Work Checks and communications around the EU Settlement Scheme click here
To find out about our dedicated recruitment and induction programmes and benefit from the support of the Kickstart (funding to support new starters) or Buildback (Specialist Upskilling Programme for Drylining) click here
To support the FIS in our ongoing efforts on behalf of the Finishes and Interiors Sector, find out about joining or referring other companies into membership here

Labour shortages, the number one concern for FIS

by Clair Mooney | Jan 29, 2021 | Labour, Membership, Skills

In a report on CNews today, FIS has continued to raise concerns about potential labour shortages.

Iain McIlwee, FIS CEO commented: As the article in CN news reflets, the extent of the immigration issue is still very much unknown, but it is concerning, especially in our sector where over 40% of the workforce is from the EU. What we do know is that over 40% of our members are currently reporting a shortage and 60% are expecting one, how bad it will get we don’t fully know right now, but we anticipate that it will impact rates and programmes. The problem has two parts, the immediate concern over who will stay and settle, we are trying to understand the cliff ledge post-Christmas and there is potentially another one coming in the summer when the Right to Works checks kick in. But, that is only part of the problem – even if all the EU workers return and stay, our annual recruitment and training target has doubled over night, because many trades do not make it on the skilled or shortage occupation list and so the EU tap is well and truly off. If just 5-10% opt to ply their trade within the EU instead, this target triples, quadruples and so on. This is the number one concern for the FIS as we move into 2021 – the infrastructure and time just isn’t in place to solve this – realistically we need to see some relaxation of the rules to give us time to transition.

Read the full article here: Labour shortages could raise rates ‘at least 10%’