The construction industry continues to benefit from growth in both the residential and commercial property sectors, with the boom expected to continue until the end of the current decade. However, the issue of skills shortages is becoming more prominent day by day, threatening to limit company growth due to a lack of skilled workers able to fulfil the terms of contracts.
In response to this, Bristol based Helm Construction has extended its award-winning training programme as a means of ensuring there is a plentiful crop of home grown talent to see it through what is forecast to be the biggest construction boom in recent years by the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB).
Helm Construction will train its own bricklayers, plasterers and carpenters to ensure all work conducted by the firm is of the highest quality without relying on sub-contractors or partially trained labourers.
Managing director of Helm Construction, Paul Evans (pictured), claims this will allow the company to grow revenues strongly whilst ensuring clients are satisfied with all work conducted.
He says; “The CITB is predicting the South West construction industry could create a further 6000 jobs by 2019, but the sting in the tail is that the recovery could be threatened by the sheer lack of necessary skills.
“But we are determined to ensure we have fully trained personnel available to cope with the upswing – to ensure we don’t get left by the wayside as the recovery gathers pace.
“This is where our in-house training programme is paying dividends, providing us with well trained and highly motivated staff who know us as well as we know them.”
It is certainly a good idea for construction firms in the South West to consider their staffing needs to remain ahead of the curve, as the latest report from the CITB indicates that growth could reach 3.6 per cent in the region during the next four years.
This is partly due to the number of nationally significant projects, such as Hinkley Point C, Bristol Airport and Filton Airfield, which are scheduled to begin during the period but also because regional construction activity has gathered pace steadily since the end of the recession.
The government’s encouragement of apprenticeship opportunities has allowed many firms to train up new talent, with Helm Construction alone having created two new positions in the past few weeks.
As Mr Evans says; “We recognised the recovery would begin in the construction sector and were determined to ensure we were fully prepared to meet the steep increase in demand from our own resources rather than rely on less well qualified workers.”
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