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Interior Systems Installer Apprenticeship at Leeds College of Building

by Clair Mooney | Nov 21, 2019 | Main News Feed

Leeds College of Building is now offering the Interior Systems Installer Apprenticeship, focusing specifically on the drylining pathway. This is a Level 2 qualification and typically takes two years to complete.

Working in partnership with British Gypsum to deliver the course, it includes the supply of materials, training and keeping apprentices up-to-date with product development. If you are interested, get in touch with the Apprenticeship Team on 0113 222 6041 or email wbl@lcb.ac.uk

Key facts

Location of study: Leeds College of Building

Funding band: £14,000, non-levy employer contribution £700

What will the candidate Study: This course is based on the new Interior Systems Installer Apprenticeship Standard.

Apprentices start: Sept 2020, however early demand could bring the first wave forward to February 2020.

Apprenticeship Training Costs: If you are an apprenticeship levy-payer you could fund this course through your levy payments, and for non-levy payers you will be required to contribute 5% of the course cost. If you are a non-levy payer and have less than 50 employees and take on a 16-18 year old apprentice the course will be free. Regardless of whether you are a levy/non-levy paying company, you can claim a one-off incentive of £1,000 for taking on a 16-18 year old apprentice.

The college will also support apprentices from out of the area by accommodating them free of charge in a city centre hotel whilst they are in college and also help with the travel costs.

For full details click here.

With around 60,000 Dryliners active in the UK, Drylining must, as a trade be one of the UK’s best kept secrets. Everybody knows what a plasterer or a carpenter is, but you often get blank looks when you talk about drylining.

The fact is that drylining is now emerging as one of the key trades in construction. It is encouraging to see leading colleges like Leeds evidencing this by getting behind it. We now have a new Apprenticeship Standard, new providers and the new funding allows real flexibility about age of apprentices.

We are also seeing significant increases in the CITB funding available for companies who take on apprentices – this is over and above the funding that you can get to cover the training. This is a huge opportunity to make 2020 the year of the apprentice, for the sector to embrace this standard as a catalyst for change, to revisit how we invest in training and work with colleges and providers to put drylining firmly on the careers map

Iain McIlwee

CEO, Finishes and Interios Sector (FIS)

Public sector retention policies published

by Clair Mooney | Nov 21, 2019 | Main News Feed

The retention policies of major public sector clients has been published by Build UK as it reached its latest milestone on its Roadmap to Zero Retentions. The information aims to provide increased transparency for the industry and includes the retention percentage generally inserted in contracts between the client and its Tier 1 contractors, as well as when the money should be released. There are significant complexities in the various policies, including exceptions that exist for certain types of project, and details can be found here.

New members needed for CONIAC SME Working Group

by Clair Mooney | Nov 21, 2019 | Main News Feed

The Construction Industry Advisory Committee (CONIAC) is looking for individuals to join its Supporting Small Employers working group.

The Health and Safety Executive is supported by a range of advisory committees and industry groups. These bodies may be concerned with health and safety in a particular industry or sector or with particular hazards present across a range of industry sectors. One such group is the Construction Industry Advisory Committee.

If you have a passion for improving the health, safety and wellbeing performance of the construction industry; work for a small/medium company and think you could make a difference and are willing to try; then you could be the person CONIAC is looking for.

Small and medium sized construction companies face particular health, safety and wellbeing (HS&W) challenges. The Supporting Small Employers Working Group (SSE WG) is tasked with both understanding these challenges and for proposing ways by which small companies can better manage HS&W risks faced by their workers.

To help further the work of the SSE WG individuals are being sought who would be willing to participate in the work of this group. The WG will benefit from hearing first-hand experience of the challenges small companies are facing and how those challenges are being met. The expectation is to attend four meetings a year and to undertake the reading and preparation required for these meetings; meetings are generally held in central London.

To get more information and to express and interest please contact one of the following Working Group members

GrenTipper grentipper@hotmail.com
Ade Ige Adebayo.ige@hse.gov.uk
Kevin Fear kevin.fear@citb.co.uk

Two major tax changes for construction in the next 12 months

by Oscar Venus | Nov 19, 2019 | Main News Feed

In the next 12 months there are not one, but two, major changes for construction.

The new off-payroll working rules come into force for medium and large companies but the changes which result will impact on people working through their own limited companies, so some small companies will feel the heat too. These new rules come into force on 1 April 2020.
Reverse charge VAT starts from 1 October 2020 and put in the simplest terms, will mean that no VAT registered construction business working for another VAT registered construction business will be paid VAT. (Of course it is more complicated than that!)
BUT you must know what the dull and dusty terms ‘off-payroll’ and ‘reverse charge’ mean or your business will be vulnerable to running up huge tax bills.

All construction businesses would be well advised to learn about them both. FIS members can read the update from JTC newsline November 2019.

FIS announces new FIS Skills Board Chair

by Oscar Venus | Nov 19, 2019 | Main News Feed

FIS is delighted to announce the new Chair of the FIS Skills Board, Operations Director at Stortford Interiors (UK) Paul Leach

Paul will take up his two year non-executive role this month and will ensure that the views of the FIS membership are fairly represented through the Board and that our skills work is steered by and meets the needs of the wider membership.

FIS Sector Skills Engagement Manager Amanda Scott and FIS Chief Executive Iain McIlwee will confer with the Chair on matters such as:

Future direction and sign off on skills and training plans
Sign off on bid development and submissions on behalf of FIS
Sign off official funding agreements on behalf of FIS

Paul, a natural skills champion, has a deep understanding of the FIS skills strategy and has been at the forefront of FIS skills development including key collaborations in the construction of the Trailblazer Interior Systems Installer Apprenticeship, 22 new FIS Sector Skills modules, Project Futures and is a champion of skills competency in his organisation and the wider sector.

We are excited to be working with Paul and will capitalise and utilise his depth of talent, skills commitment, technical knowledge, competency and vast experience in our sector.

FIS Sector Skills Engagement Manager, Amanda Scott

With an eye on developing skills throughout the sector and helping others achieve competency in their roles, I am excited to be assisting and working with the FIS Skills Board and its members to achieve this, whilst putting something back into the industry that has served me so well over the last 42 years.

FIS Skills Board Chair, Paul Leach

Grenfell contractor banned pending inquiry decision

by Oscar Venus | Nov 19, 2019 | Main News Feed

A contractor in London has been banned from carrying out housing works until the Grenfell Inquiry rules on whether it contributed to the fire.

London mayor Sadiq Khan made the decision to ban Rydon Construction Ltd (RCL), alongside 12 other companies, from carrying out works on public high-rise housing in the area.

The Labour mayor signed an order asserting it was not in the public interest to allow the company to bid for works until the public inquiry “has reported on the extent to which any Rydon group companies or employee contributed to causing or exacerbating the Grenfell Tower fire”.

Rydon was the main contractor for the £10 million Grenfell Tower refurbishment work.

Grenfell United, which represents survivors and bereaved families, said: “The government needs to stop hiding behind red tape, apply common sense and take Rydon off this list.

“If the mayor can do it to keep Londoners safe, the prime minister should do it for the rest of the country. Rydon should not be allowed to work on high-rise blocks until the investigations into how the refurbishment of Grenfell went so badly wrong is complete.”

Pressure has been mounting on Rydon with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities & Local Government taking to twitter with the statement “I understand why survivors and bereaved do not want to see public contracts awarded to the main contractor for the Grenfell Tower refurb until we have the full results of the inquiry. The contractor should not bid for further work until we know the truth”.