Press Release
Sector Skills Agreement for Southern Counties construction industry to tackle skills needs
18 October 2005
The vision of a construction industry in the Southern Counties that is fully qualified, highly professional and working safely to deliver outstanding value, came a step closer this week with the launch of a Sector Skills Agreement (SSA) that puts employers squarely at the centre of decisions about the funding and delivery of training in construction.
The construction industry SSA, negotiated by ConstructionSkills, is a series of agreements between training providers, employers and government to address the construction industry’s current and future skills needs, such as increasing the number of young people completing construction apprenticeships.
John Course, CITB-ConstructionSkills Southern Counties Area Manager, commented: “Our overriding aim is to ensure the qualifications, business support, training and funding infrastructures in the South East of England are such that the industry has the right people with the right skills in the right place at the right time in order to meet client expectations on quality, time and cost.”
John Parsonage, Director of Learning & Skills at SEEDA, comments: "This new strategy focuses on the major long-term issues of ensuring that this substantial workforce has the skills needed to respond to changing working practices throughout their careers. It reflects the need for employers and individuals to react to these changes in order to increase productivity and remain competitive on a global scale."
Steve Sumitomo-Wyatt, Head of Workforce Development, Learning and Skills Council (LSC) Surrey, said: “The Sector Skills Agreement offers the LSC an opportunity to focus its funding on those areas of construction training that the sector needs. As a result, we are now working closely with CITB-ConstructionSkills on funding for training via the On-Site Assessment and Training (OSAT) route. We are also exploring funding for construction training connected to the Olympics and Paralympics in 2012.”
The industry in South East has openings for professional and graduate level entrants: from civil engineers to landscape architects. For example, between now and 2008, we expect to have opportunities for 7,000 managers, 5,160 clerical staff and 1,480 technicians as well as 3,800 bricklayers and 3,000 painters and decorators.
Over 293,000 people are employed directly and indirectly by the construction industry in the South East alone. Total construction output in 2003 was approximately £10.5bln in the South East.
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