Itis a great pleasure to be with you here today at this importantConference. I am particularly glad tobe able to support an event sponsored and organised jointly by CIBSE and theACE. I am very conscious of thekindness shown by you, Mr President, and your members in electing me anHonorary Fellow of the Chartered Institution.We had an excellent discussion at your Headquarters in Balham afortnight ago. I look forward to acontinuing close relationship with you and your colleagues in the years tocome.
Asyou know, I have had close links with the mechanical and electrical sector forquite some years. I have the privilegeof chairing both the Joint Major Contractors Group of the ECA and the HVCA andalso the Joint Industry Board for the Electrical Contracting Industry. Both are very involved with craft training,whether through ESTTL, BEST, NET, JTL or other providers, and bothorganisations are also concerned with the alarming situation over highereducation in M and E. This involvement of mine with M and E long predates my work with CITB ConstructionSkills, but I have found it very helpful to be closely connected with both sectors. They are separate, and that is to be respected, but they mustalso work closely together, upon which I shall elaborate further.
Thisaddress is designated in your programme as a Keynote Speech. I shall use the privilege which that affordsto range wider than the bullet points attributed to me in the programme, andconcentrate more on policy than detail.But of course I shall be happy to expand further in discussion ifmembers present so wish.
Thewhole field of higher and further education in the M and E sector, and indeedin construction as a whole, is on the threshold of major change. This year will see the setting up of twoSector Skills Councils, Summitskills and Construction Skills. Summitskills will be for employers and tradeunions in the electromechanical, heating, ventilation, air conditioning,refrigeration, plumbing and gas fitting sectors. Construction Skills is for the rest of the construction industry and the parties involved in it are CITB ConstructionSkills, CITB Northern Ireland, and the Construction Industry Council (CIC).CIBSE will obviously be involved with both SSCs, because it is an activemember of the CIC and also has its core connection with the M and Esector. I stressed to the Adult SkillsMinister twelve months ago, when he asked me to Chair the CITB, that it wasvital that the two SSCs worked closely together. That has certainly happened, and both are now at the stage ofdeveloping how they will actually work and carry out the wide ranging roleswhich the Government have set them.
Thereis no doubt that the Government is expecting great things of SSCs. They will provide them with the singleemployer led voice which they want in sectors of great economic and strategicimportance. But that voice must neverbe one of generalised moans or unsubstantiated assertions. If it is to convince Government it must baseits public statements and decisions on comprehensive and respected researchdata. The key to this will be theproposed workforce plans, and that is a field of policy in which CITB alreadyhas detailed experience.
Workingwith employers from across the sector we have identified three major challengesfor the construction industry image and recruitment, qualifying theworkforce, and improving performance.
OurSkills Foresight Report for 2002 predicted that 380,000 people will need to berecruited into construction over the next five years. 65,000 people are neededto join the industry each year merely to replace those leaving from a steadilyageing workforce. In addition, theGovernments strong programme on hospitals, roads, schools, housing andinfrastructure will require an increase in the industrys workforce of around11,000 a year. We did achieve thistarget in 2002, but we need to maintain the momentum over the next four years.
Thereare also challenging targets in the Accelerating Change report from theStrategic Forum last September for achieving a fully qualified workforce by2010, targets which reinforce those already set by the industry. CITB have estimated that this could meanclose to half a million people needing to achieve a vocational qualification atlevel 2 over that time period. TheMajor Contractors Groups target is much more demanding 100% certification ontheir sites by the end of this year, which will require tremendous commitmentfrom all, but which is also being strongly assisted by CITB grant, publicityand the Construction Skills Certification Scheme.
Evidenceshows that only a minority of companies attach importance to proper investmentin training as a means of improving business performance. Current figures estimate that only 15% ofconstruction companies and an even smaller proportion of consultancy practicesare recognised as Investors in People, although, again, CITB grants areavailable for in-scope firms seeking IiP.A substantial programme of skills investment will be required to aid theindustry to bring about the challenges posed in Accelerating Change and theRespect for People initiative and by emerging new technologies.
Tacklingthese issues and achieving the targets will require tremendous commitment fromclients and all in the supply chain. Sohow do we start? Firstly, we need toacknowledge that there is much good work going on already. That can be seen by looking at todaysprogramme. And this is probably justthe tip of the iceberg. One of theroles of a Sector Skills Council is going to be to act as a focus for this bestpractice and be the means to disseminate it extensively and also provide thesupport and training needed to ensure the widest possible implementation.
Letme take the first of the three challenges that of recruiting a sufficientnumber of people into the industry who have the right mix of skills. You may remember seeing in the constructionpress last year especially during National Construction Week - reference toCITBs latest wave of advertising. Itwas intended to give an upbeat message to young people about the constructionindustry. It used the best of 2001sads and some new images. These appearedin youth orientated magazines and as banner advertisements on websites. The good news is that we saw a 30% increasein the number of young people expressing an interest in joining the industry atall levels. But there are some realconcerns. We are still seeing a fall inthe number of young people applying for university construction-relatedcourses, apart from architecture. Thereis a real sense of crisis in some universities, as courses have closed or beenscaled down because of lack of student demand.I have had this reported to me in several forums, and also in my directexperience as a visiting professor.Perhaps young people and not so young - feel that our careerprospects, working conditions and salaries are not commensurate with those incompeting sectors. We have to be ableto change that perception. One way isto see how our marketing campaigns can push buttons specifically for youngpeople considering university courses, as has been done so successfully in ourmarketing for craft skills. This shouldbe a priority concern for the new SSCS, I believe. Another desirable step is for employers to offer support to youngpeople as they undertake their degrees through offering sponsorship and/or workplacements either during their year out or during the summer vacation. It may not cost employers any extra money asit may save their annual graduate recruitment budget. It will cost time and effort but employers will berewarded with good recruits. So,employers, please do your bit. Theyoung graduates of 2006 will lead the industry in 2026. Will there be enough of them? It will be no use complaining then.
Inmy report Constructing the Team 8 years ago, I drew attention to the factthat women and ethnic minorities were seriously under-represented in theconstruction industry. There is a clearbusiness case for the industry to diversify its workforce. It is not only a moral and ethical issue ofequal opportunities, though it is most certainly that. It is also common sense, especially for anindustry which has significant skill problems and continual recruitment requirements. Despite it making good sense, not everybodyin the industry either accepts that or is doing anything about it. We all need to repeat the message as oftenas possible in speeches, at conferences, but practical example is always betterthan words. I attach great importanceto much more diversity in the industry, as a core objective of CITB. We need a construction industry which looksmore like Britain, and Britain is not all male and white. That is why CITB has placed substantialweight upon its diversity strategy as part of its 2002-2006 Business Plan. It has introduced a rolling programme ofdiversity training for all staff, appropriate to their specific roles, alongwith equal opportunities monitoring of personnel. It has also set demanding and rising targets for staff tohelp bring about more women and ethnic minorities entering the industry. Thatis the first step of walking the talk.Can we all say the same about our own companies or organisations?
Thekey to all of this is genuine collaboration between the main stakeholders whichin this case are Government, employers, higher education and the professionalbodies. A start was made with theMaking Connections seminar held in January 2002 attended by all these keyplayers. Out of it came a series of actions.Many of them are underway, such as the Construction Graduate Consortium,a handbook supporting undergraduate placements and an agreement amongst theprofessional bodies to explore joint accreditation. The challenge has now been taken up by the Strategic Forum. CITBworked alongside Rethinking Construction, the Construction Industry Council andthe HE Centre for Education in the Built Environment to host a well attendedseminar in Leeds last November, chaired by Peter Rogers. The output from the seminar is due to bediscussed at the next Strategic Forum Meeting in February, with a view to thetargets being incorporated into the work of the Forum. This puts the issue about as high up theindustrys agenda as is possible. Butto keep it there will require all of the stakeholders to put their money wheretheir mouth is! The rhetoric is wellknown and has been heard very often, but we now need to see concerted actionand tangible results. It is not aquestion of do we need craft skills rather than graduates? The industry needs both. Raising skills should be a target throughouta persons career in the industry.Craft skills qualifications, HNCs and HNDs, other diplomas, foundationdegrees, undergraduate degrees, Masters or Doctorates, all should be availableand encouraged by employers, without arbitrary age limits, and some of them canbe provided by professional institutions as well as universities.
Allof our good intentions will be ineffective if we cannot outreach to the smallcompanies which form 99% of our industry and get them involved in todaysmodernising agenda. They do not haveCorporate Affairs Directors or Human Resource Managers, with the time, staff ortraining to read voluminous documents or brochures. The boss has to do it himself or herself, perhaps over thebreakfast table before getting onto site to undertake a job which would beunthinkably small to large building companies like mine but which is vital tothe householder or small shopkeeper client.The situation is similar in the majority of consultancy practices. It is our job to try and communicate vitalinformation to these small companies in a customer friendly way. It is never the customers fault if he orshe does not understand our marketing or business message. It is always our fault. We have to tailor our message to them, notvice versa. We need to ensure that wespeak to people in a language to which they can relate. Last July CITB signed a Common Accord withthe Small Business Service to improve the level of business services offered tosmall companies. That is a good exampleof the mutual benefit which can be reaped through effective and action basedpartnerships with organisations outside the industry, which have much wisdom tobring us. We must learn, quickly, thatwe dont have all the answers.
Towardsthe end of his life, the great American statesman, Thomas Jefferson, wroteabout the potential conflict between the newly explored mid-Western territoriesof the USA and the existing slave states.This momentous question, like a firebell in the night, awakened andfilled me with terror. I considered itat once as the knell of the Union. Ourindustry must also listen to a firebell in the night. It has been rung by clients, who have been demanding for over adecade that the industry modernises itself, with the clients themselves at thecore of the process. The bell rings outto insist upon the Egan targets costs reduced, non-value adding costseliminated, quality much enhanced, safety greatly improved, buildings and infrastructureto time. And at the core of thoseaspirations is the industrys workforce, those who actually deliver theprojects, whether in design or site construction. They need to be well trained, professional, highly motivated andflexible. Above all, they need to beavailable, and half empty or closed university courses are no help in thatregard. The firebell will not ringindefinitely. If we do not change, ourclients will look elsewhere, and many have already done so, both in terms ofacquisition by overseas companies or the importing of skilled and hard workingpersonnel from abroad.
Butwe do not need to be despondent. Theindustry was as busy in 2002 as it has been for years, and 2003 should also bestrong. That is what this Conference isabout action to recruit now, not depression or defeatism. There have been major improvements in theindustry over the last ten years, though there is still far to go.
Toomuch of the discussion in the past about our industry has either been handwringing or else dismissive. Either wecant get the people to come in, the young dont want to work in our industry,or what do we need college boys, let alone girls for, we just need good craftskills? All these universities justturn out know-alls who cant do the job on site, or in the drawingoffice. We have to get away from boththese negative and totally outdated approaches. We need to ensure that this is an industry which deserves thebest because it respects people, with decent and safe site conditions, it paysthem properly and offers strong career aspirations. So we need to stress that this is a great industry. That its skills, whether in M and E, inother site crafts, in project or construction management, in design,measurement or other professional disciplines, are all equally needed toprovide real added value. This is acreative and serious industry, with great outputs which last long after theircreators have passed on. It wants thebest. It needs the best. Why?Because, quite literally, this industry has built, is building, and willalways build Britain.