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Government announces free adult training courses to begin

by Clair Mooney | Oct 15, 2021 | Main News Feed, Skills

Thousands of working adults will be offered free courses to rapidly upskill in STEM sectors including engineering, digital and construction.

65 short and modular courses will start to roll out from later this month at 10 Institutes of Technology (IoTs) across England in sought-after STEM subjects. This will include courses such as Digitisation of Manufacturing and Digital Construction.

The courses will be a blend of classroom and remote online study, and will vary in length from 50 to 138 hours – giving more adults greater flexibility in how and when they learn, so they can fit it around their lives.

The government’s network of Institutes of Technology – collaborations between leading employers, further education colleges and universities – specialise in delivering high-quality Higher Technical Education and training in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects, such as digital, advanced manufacturing and engineering, providing employers with the skilled workforce they need.

A total of £6.4 million is being invested to support IoTs to offer the free courses, which will support up to 4,000 working adults to get on the path to a new, rewarding career and will plug local skills shortages.

Boosting the uptake and quality of Higher Technical Qualifications – that sit between A levels and degrees – and supporting adults to study more flexibly throughout their lives is a key part of the government’s landmark reforms to post-16 education and training.

A major review of higher technical education revealed these qualifications can unlock the skills employers need and lead to well paid jobs. However, it also shows that the quality of qualifications on offer at further and higher education providers can be variable and it can be hard for students and employers to find the ones that are right for them.

From September 2022, the government will start rolling out newly approved Higher Technical Qualifications, beginning with Digital, and followed by Construction and Health in 2023. A full suite of qualifications will be available by 2025.

Higher Technical Qualifications will provide a natural progression route for both young people taking T Levels or A levels, and adults looking to upskill or retrain – enabling them to take the next step up and gain higher technical skills in key subjects like STEM.

Inspiring change in construction

by Clair Mooney | Oct 14, 2021 | Main News Feed

Has your business or project created a more open and inclusive culture where everyone feels valued?

Has it:
• Attracted new employees from a wider talent pool?
• Helped address gender or racial inequality in the industry?
• Removed barriers to inclusion, enabling all employees and potential employees to have the same opportunities?
• Increased employability rates in the community?
• Helped tackle issues in today’s society?
• Built collaborative relationships with stakeholders and suppliers?N

Now in its fifth year, the Inspiring Change Awards and Conference highlight and reward organisations within the construction and infrastructure sector that have created a more inclusive culture. Creating open and inclusive workplace cultures in which everyone feels valued, and respects colleagues, is recognised as key to business success. Increasingly, employees want to work in companies that recognise the importance of fairness, inclusion and respect and clients are focussing on diversity and inclusion within their procurement policies.

Submissions to the 2021 Awards are asked to provide evidence that the organisation recognises the value of employee and/or community engagement and that they have introduced initiatives that have achieved benefits for both the business and the community. Entries needed to show how initiatives are aligned to company goals, made a sustainable and positive impact on the workforce or community in which it operates and have delivered positive results.

Judges are looking for innovative interventions that are aligned to company strategy and will inspire other employers to follow their lead. The awards recognise businesses that improve the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large.

Categories
The following categories will be awarded:
• Inspiring Change in the Workplace – Company and Project
• Inspiring Change in the Community – Company and Project
• Inspiring Change in Education – Company and Project
• The FIR Inspiration Award
• Inspiring Change SME Award – SMEs entering one of the three main categories will automatically be entered for this Award

Eligibility
The Inspiring Change 2021 Awards are eligible for all those working in the construction industry and build environment in the UK. There are awards for SMEs and project-based initiatives. The deadline for entry is 22 October 2021. For more information visit www.inspiringchangeawards.com or contact brionywickenden@ceca.co.uk.

Help develop future talent for your business

by Clair Mooney | Oct 14, 2021 | Main News Feed, Skills

Construction T-Levels are now available for the following areras of our sector:

Design, surveying and planning
Onsite construction with an occupational specialism in plastering which includes drylining

T-Levels are two-year courses with a 45 day industrial placement for 16 to 19 year olds. Designed with employers, each T-Level is an alternative to three A levels, and can lead to an accelerated apprenticeship. They also help young people develop the knowledge, attitude and practical skills to thrive in the workplace.

At the heart of each course, a 45-day industry placement will give you early access to the brightest talent entering your market. Employers that are interested in offering an industry placement, can get help to find a local college, school or training provider to partner with. They will support you at every stage of the industry placement so you can focus on getting the most out of your placement student.

Over the autumn, the Department for Education and SDN are hosting a series of online sessions to help employers explore, plan for, and host T-Level industry placements. They’ve started a new series to give employers a more in-depth understanding of placements for particular T-Levels. They’re also covering specific topics to support employers and their teams. Topics covered include:

The role of the line manager and mentor in industry placements (27 October)
Introduction to industry placements – supporting your workforce development (9 November)
Hosting industry placements in construction roles (18 November)
A longer two-hour industry placement workshop, to start planning for industry placements and talk with other like-minded employers (30 November)

You can find out more and register here

Candidates are available for work placement now, if you would like more information please see: https://www.tlevels.gov.uk/ If you need information, advice and/or guidance please call FIS on 0121 707 0077 or email info@thefis.org

Get your complimentary ticket at the Workspace Design Show

by Clair Mooney | Oct 8, 2021 | Main News Feed

FIS is proud to partner with the first ever Workspace Design Show which will take place on 4-5 November 2021 at the Business Design Centre in London. This event is a must-attend for anyone in the sector – and it is free to attend!

After all the recent disruption to the workspace industry, there is huge change underway in how we are designing our office interiors to improve the employee experience. The Workspace Design Show will be a great chance to listen to the latest thought leadership, check out the newest and most innovative interiors products, and network with your industry peers again.

The Workspace Design Talks conference will feature top level A&D speakers from Gensler, Grimshaw, Perkins&Will, AECOM, Arup, Areen, MCM, tp bennett, MF Design Studio, BDP Architecture, and end-user clients such as HMRC, PwC, BBC, McCann, Aviva, The Office Group, Co-space, DLA Piper and more. Panel discussions will open up challenging debates to uncover the latest thinking in how design can influence employee wellbeing, engagement, creativity & productivity, as well as the latest workspace design trends in sustainability, flexibility and inclusivity.

The attendee list includes delegates confirmed from Government Property Agency, Oktra, Unispace, Vodafone, Barclays Bank, NHS Property Services, Crown Commercial Service, Faith and Gould, We Work, CBRE, British Land, Morgan Lovell.

Your complimentary guest pass will give you access to the exhibition as well as all the talks featuring the above speakers, the Leisure Area to use as a co-working space or a meeting space or just a place to relax/ work from during the two days as well as free coffee, tea, hot chocolate throughout the 2 days at 3 dedicated coffee stations.

The Show floor will also feature re-creations of commercial interiors such as the Design Talks Lounge designed and curated by The Furniture Practice, The VIP Lounge designed by Rainlight Studio, built by AASK US and curated by Obolife. Spaces Taylored and Seven Hills Workspace collaboratively designed and curated the leisure area and the exhibition area will include leading brands such as Humanscale, Spacestor, Tarkett, Interface, Actiu, Zumtobel, Andreu World, Benchmark Furniture, Buzzispace, and many more.

Construction’s important role in the post-Covid recovery

by Clair Mooney | Oct 7, 2021 | Main News Feed

Later this month the Chancellor of the Exchequer will set out his Autumn Budget and Spending Review to Parliament.

It should not be underestimated how important this is both to the UK economy, and to companies from across the UK construction industry.

This Spending Review will set the money available to public bodies to deliver their priorities over the coming three years. As such it is the moment at which strategic priorities and budgets are set for government departments. As outlined in the recent construction pipeline publication, many capital programmes are already supported by long-term funding settlements. As a result, the Spending Review can be expected to add further detail to government’s approach to investment paid for by the public purse.

The Construction Leadership Council has written to the Chancellor outlining how the Government can get best return on money committed to construction delivery and maintenance.

We need to be clear on the circumstances in which this letter has been prepared. Last year we all welcomed the enormous and unprecedented financial interventions that the Government delivered to support companies and employees through the biggest crisis in generations. We also welcomed the significant investment commitment in last year’s Spending Review. Inevitably however, the pandemic has left the public finances in an extremely challenging state.

It may surprise people in the industry that this has not led to the preparation of a long list of new projects we want the Government to back. We all know that there is a huge amount to be done, not least in accelerating the decarbonisation of the UK’s existing building stock, and it is clear that construction is a huge driver of economic growth.

Put simply, there is little point in presenting the Government with a further list of works that almost inevitably would have to be ignored, and in the process losing the opportunity to emphasise those things that the government could and should continue to invest in. We should remember that the Government has already displayed its confidence in the industry through its support to building back better including major investments including HS2 and the Health Infrastructure Plan.

We hope and expect that the Chancellor will use the Spending Review to commit to maintaining existing levels of investment beyond the current spending review period. This will sustain employment and growth in a way that few other industries can – levelling up communities large and small across the whole of the UK.

Our second ask is linked to the Government’s commitment to deliver net zero carbon by 2050. We know as an industry that one of the single largest interventions to achieve this would be a programme to retrofit the UK’s existing housing stock, driving carbon out of the heating and running of homes.

We are not asking for money at this stage but instead something that is in the long term more important. In advance of the completion of the Heat and Buildings Strategy, we are calling for the national retrofit programme to become a strategic priority for government in the coming three years. This will mean that it is an area of significant concern for senior ministers to work with industry, developing a fully funded programme paid for both by public and private sector, to secure a step change in the carbon performance of the built environment.

We have welcomed the work that has already been done by the Construction Innovation Hub to improve the productivity of industry. Building on this work will act as an enabler of the retrofit programme, driving the innovation to push down cost. For this reason, our only specific new funding ask is that the Government continues to match industry support for the Hub to develop new and better approaches to retrofit. This support will also underpin ongoing work to develop digital twins of UK built assets, allowing them to be much more effectively managed, securing lower long-term costs and much better carbon performance.

We know that to deliver all this we will need to upgrade our skills. We are not calling for a specific funding intervention for construction but instead have asked that the government sustains its efforts to promote future skills by maintaining existing support for employers to take on apprenticeships and continues to refine the operation of the Apprenticeship Levy.

The CLC’s mission is to support the sector to provide leadership and to collaborate to deliver industry change. The Government plays a huge rule in delivering this change – we hope that the Spending Review will help us take the next big step towards a better industry for everyone.

How to manage design liability and understand your responsibility

by Clair Mooney | Sep 30, 2021 | Main News Feed

To help contractors understand their level of responsibility when it comes to design, the Finishes and Interiors Sector (FIS) has published a new guidance note, How to manage design liability and understand your responsibility

Prepared by construction law specialist Anderson Strathern for the FIS and aimed at contractors who may be assuming design, the new guidance note brings clarity to the risks and liabilities associated with their role in the contract.

The new FIS guidance note will help contractors understand the role of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 Designer, the terms of a contract, how to protect themselves and the importance of adequate and appropriate insurance to cover risk.

Commenting on the launch of the new guidance, Iain McIlwee, Chief Executive of the FIS said:

“We are seeing design liabilities pushed through the supply chain more and more with roles and responsibilities increasingly blurred. The new FIS guidance note will help contractors understand their legal responsibilities, particularly when it comes to design issues apparent during construction.”

This brief guidance also provides information on health and safety issues and why it is important to have a net contribution clause and a cap on liability clause within a contract.

FIS members can access a range of services to support them in managing the complexities of contracting and supplying products into the construction market, this includes template contracts, guidance on standard terms, support in dealing with disputes and a raft of best practice advice.

The guidance note is available from the FIS website at https://www.thefis.org/knowledge-hub/contractual-and-legal/