The Q3 Construction Trade Survey follows one of the worst quarters in history for sales of construction products and materials, and contractor and surveyor workloads. The seven-week coronavirus lockdown in Q2 saw the industry bear the brunt of pauses in activity in March, April and May. An easing of restrictions from mid-May and a change in seasons in terms of the weather kicked off the subsequent returns to site and rebound in activity throughout Q3.
Ofqual publishes regulatory arrangements on adapting vocational and technical qualifications and assessments in 2021.
In recognition that some learners taking vocational and technical qualifications (VTQs) have experienced lost teaching and training time as a result of COVID-19 and that appropriate arrangements need to be put in place to mitigate the impact of this disruption and respond to any ongoing or future public health measures. Ofqual consulted on proposals to permit awarding organisations to adjust their qualifications and assessments, which took account of the different ways in which the qualifications are used ranging from those taken alongside, or instead of general qualifications, to those used to signal occupational competency. On 7 September, Ofqual confirmed their decisions and the proposed arrangements will be implemented in full.
On 12 October 2020 Ofqual published the Extended Extraordinary Regulatory Framework (ERF), to put the arrangements into effect. The Extended ERF sets out the regulatory arrangements and statutory guidance with which awarding organisations must comply when adapting their qualifications. It includes 4 principles with which awarding organisations must comply when making their decisions around adaptations, supported by statutory guidance. Ofqual have also included statutory guidance on Special Consideration within the regulatory framework.
At a time when many programmes have been paused, CITB has maintained its support for a nationwide network of local and specialist Training Groups, so that employers who are Training Group members can access the local training they need.
However, CITB need to look at costs given the significant reduced levy income for the foreseeable future. At the same time, they need to consider what are the most effective ways to help companies access training at a local level, while ensuring value for money and quality of provision.
On Wednesday 11 November 2020, CITB launched an industry wide consultation on how best to provide support in future. This will help them understand the biggest benefits of Training Groups to employers and gather thoughts on the options CITB are presenting.
You can find the full options paper and the survey on the CITB website. If you need more information, please contact the CITB Partnership Team or give George a call.
With the second lockdown for England now in force, education and training is set to continue across the country for all industries and sectors. Awarding Organisations are providing information to centres on acceptable approaches and contingencies to ensure government guidance aimed at reducing infection is applied. From what we have seen so far Training Providers for the construction industry are being encouraged to continue delivering training, assessment and qualifications, including end point assessments. Special measures that have enabled 25,000 apprentices to complete their end-point assessment during the Covid-19 pandemic will be retained until at least March 2021.
The FIS Approved Training Provider network will continue to deliver training and qualifications for FIS members and there are discounts and offers available, have a look at membership benefits on the membership hub. FIS is happy to help identify a supplier for your training needs, a list of available training and qualifications and suppliers can be found here or give us a call on 0121 707 0077 or email info@thefis.org.
If you have not applied for CITB Skills and Training Fund, FIS will be happy to help. Call us on 0121 707 0077 or email info@thefis.org or you can book a Skills and Funding Clinic online at https://www.thefis.org/skills-hub/skills-clinics/
The new points based system that will be implemented to control immigration from 1 January 2021 will have a significant impact on how and who we can engage individuals from outside the UK to work. With most of the detail available, FIS is conducting a snap survey to assess the impact on your business and to support our representative work in this area. Our concerns stem from how occupations have been determined “skilled” and the surprisingly hard line the Home Secretary has taken on shortage occupations. This will not impact those workers already working in the UK and successfully applying for pre-settled or settled status, but will have a profound impact on our ability to attract new people (or indeed those who have returned home for a period before securing any kind of settled status).
To support our attempts to assess the impact, we have created a short survey in which we would like to gather your best estimates for your business. We will be using the survey on a rolling basis and will keep it open until the 15th November.
In terms of immediate actions, there is new guidance from the CLC that FIS helped to pull together Movement of people – what should you be doing now? From this page you can also follow links to a more detailed explanation of how the new system will work, the scale of the problem and why FIS is concerned.
We are planning a planning a webinar to look at actions and options for later November, so keep an eye on our events page for details.
