Mismatch needs to be tackled to turn keen learners into invaluable construction professionals

There is a mismatch in the construction sector which revolves around the development of our future workforce and it needs fixing to accelerate the industry’s growth ambitions.

It is no secret the built environment faces a pressing need for new talent as demand for infrastructure grows and home-building targets rise. It is predicted by the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) that the industry will need more than 250,000 extra workers by 2028 to meet infrastructure demands and house-building targets.

We should all be encouraged that data shows young people are showing increasing interest in construction by enrolling on college courses at 16, but there is a significant issue: apprenticeships, a key route into many construction careers, are not growing in tandem with this interest.

According to DfE data, between 2022/23 and 2023/24, there was a 12% rise in the number of learning aim enrolments in construction by 16 to 18-year-olds nationally while for 19 to 24-year-olds, the rise was 20%.

But there was a fall in construction apprenticeship starts and the number of level 2 construction apprenticeships, which are often undertaken by young people leaving school or college, went down by 9%.

The recent announcement that apprentices aged 19 and above will no longer be required to pass English and maths functional skills courses has been welcomed by some, but this risks driving apprenticeship starts for young people under-19 (who must still meet this requirement) even lower by incentivising providers and employers to focus on over-19s.

That is significant because apprenticeships rather than college-based courses still represent the primary route into construction careers, especially for young people. In all but a few trades, becoming competent in an occupation – be it a carpenter, plumber, or electrician – requires learning on the job via an apprenticeship. It therefore makes sense that college courses should serve as a supply line to tee up apprentices.

But DfE data indicates that, for young people who completed a level 2 or vocational level 3 construction course (usually in college), only 20-25% moved into ‘employment with learning’ (likely to be an apprenticeship) in the six months after they completed their course; a quarter had ‘no positive destination’ (not in sustained work or training); 35-40% moved into ‘employment only’ (a job without training) with retail, administration and hospitality the most common sectors of employment – barely 1 in 10 of this number entered ‘employment only’ in the construction sector.

There is a way to fix this and that would involve more clearly connecting education and training provision so that more students make the transition from college course to apprenticeship because the data suggests that at the moment this is not happening as often as it should.

Government should be explicit that apprenticeships are the primary route into construction for young people and that college courses should act as feeders for this. Better monitoring of learner destinations by sector and occupation will help with this.

More work then needs to be done to develop ‘accelerated apprenticeships’, whereby progression into apprenticeships is planned into the college course from the start. This also means that the duration of the apprenticeship can be reduced to recognise a learner’s prior knowledge and skills (gained while in college). Our work in this area finds that employers, especially smaller firms, welcome such programmes because young people arrive at their apprenticeship with some skills, and the apprenticeship itself is shorter as a result.

To further support growth in apprenticeships, it is essential to provide more support for employers, especially small ones, who often find apprenticeships costly and burdensome to manage.

This dampens employer demand for apprentices and therefore reduces the number of opportunities for young people, despite their desire to pursue a career in construction.

One way to address this is through stepping up the role of the CITB, working with the further education sector. The CITB has the potential to play a larger role in supporting employers, offering expertise and reducing the administrative load that comes with managing apprenticeships. By taking some of the pressure off employers, the CITB can help increase the number of apprenticeship opportunities available to young people in construction.

The opportunity to expand apprenticeships in construction is here, but it requires commitment from all parties – government, further education providers and employers – to create a system that works for the future of the built environment sector and the young people eager to contribute to it.

James Farr is a director at Think