Welsh Government Minister Kirsty Williams visited Willowtown Primary school in Ebbw Vale to launch the GoConstruct Educate resources, which introduces the construction industry to the school curriculum in a bid to get more youngsters to consider a future career in construction. The Go Construct Educate Programme is a Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) funded project awarded to major construction contractor Bouygues UK. CITB and Bouygues UK have worked with a consortium of partners from the construction industry, education sector, Careers Wales and learning technology company Aspire 2Be to develop the resources, which will be available to every school, teacher and pupil across Wales aged from five to 16. The GoConstruct Educate resources will cover numeracy, literacy and digital competency skills, and provision is also made for Welsh Baccalaureate and alternative education. Teachers will be provided with a series of contextualised learning projects which include an overview for each project, along with a set of progressive lesson plans and numerous interactive resources to use with each year group. The resources will all be available on Hwb, the education online platform which is available to all 1456 schools in Wales. As well as GoConstruct Educate, the other GoConstruct elements are Experience – where students use the much-loved game Minecraft to learn about building and planning; and GoConstruct Engage – in which construction professionals across a wide range of roles and business will visit schools to talk about their career pathway. Go Construct Engage links in to both projects to enable industry experts to come into the schools and bring the resources to life. On launching the resources, Minister for Education, Kirsty Williams said: “I’m grateful to the CITB and their partners for launching Go Construct – Experience, Educate and Engage resources, using these within the classroom and as part of work experience will help schools to recognise and utilise the opportunities the construction sector can offer our learners.” CITB Chief Executive Sarah Beale said: “CITB is delighted to have funded and co-developed Go Construct Educate in collaboration with Bouygues UK and a consortium of industry partners. “The programme is a milestone in Welsh education. It means construction modules will be part of the Welsh curriculum for the first time. Go Construct Educate will make the teaching of construction modern, informative and fun for all. It will mean boys, girls, teachers and parents in Wales fully consider the wide range of career opportunities in construction, thus helping industry with the skills challenges it faces.” Pupils at Willowtown Primary showed the Minister how they have been using some of the GoConstruct Educate resources to help them in class including constructing a bridge and using Minecraft to plan a building. Emma Thomas, acting Headteacher at Willowtown Primary school said: “We are very excited to host the launch of Go Construct Educate. We are proud to be a STEM learning network school and ensure a STEM rich focus is at the heart of all our topics. We want to future proof our learners and give them skills that will help them succeed. “Engaging with the Go Construct Educate project fits perfectly with our STEM ethos. We ran the Go Construct Educate project successfully across the school last year and found that it was an excellent way to engage with the new curriculum. The resources are clear and detailed for teachers to use and they are purposeful and interactive for the children.” Julie Timothy, Corporate Social Responsibility Manager at Bouygues UK South West and Wales said: “One of Bouygues UK’s core business aims is to highlight how diverse and dynamic the construction industry is, to fill a growing skills shortage and ensure that the industry has nurtured a talent pipeline for the future growth anticipated. “Go Construct Educate presented us with a fantastic opportunity to achieve some of those goals by introducing children to construction from a young age and change misconceptions about the industry as a whole. There are so many career paths and opportunities within this sector – including a massive 2,000 different job roles – and yet it’s not something pupils often hear about during school hours.  “To that end, we want to make sure that the lesson plans and projects are progressive, digestible and above all else that they weave seamlessly into the new curriculum, making it as easy as possible for teachers to engage their students. “Bouygues UK is thrilled to be bringing GoConstruct Educate to schools across Wales, and with our official launch just around the corner, we’re really looking forward to seeing its impact on the Welsh construction industry for years to come.” Simon Pridham, Education and Performance Partner at Aspire 2Be said: “The investment CITB has assigned to Go Construct Experience, Educate and Engage in Wales is absolutely tremendous, this really is a game changer for schools in Wales. As a former Headteacher and Government Adviser, I wish these resources and opportunities had been available a number of years ago, when I was leading a school.” Aspire 2Be has been working in conjunction with Welsh Government to ensure that the GoConstruct lesson plans and any resources used are aligned with the new curriculum in Wales. This means that each module will be integrated in various school subjects, to align with the Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Maths (STEAM) and will cover the Six Areas of Learning and the Four Purposes. Ahead of its official launch, schoolchildren from all over Wales were invited to road-test the three GoConstruct Projects in ‘Buildathon’ events at Coleg Cambria in Deeside, Parc y Scarlets in Llanelli and Sophia Gardens, Cardiff. The pupils were assigned roles as project managers, architects and construction managers and were asked to design and build a rugby or cricket fan village using Minecraft. Former Wales rugby player Rupert Moon also attended these events to talk to the children about the importance of experiencing different careers from an early age.

Prospective apprentices are invited to a series of seminars at Newcastle College this week to mark National Apprenticeship Week. On Wednesday 5th February, the doors of the college’s Rye Hill Campus will be opened for an Apprenticeship Open Event, offering the chance to meet employers, ask questions and make an application. Lee Tennant, Head of Apprenticeships at Newcastle College, said: “Apprenticeships are vital to the future of skills and employment within the region. Helping young people find their path into skilled careers and from the other side, businesses sourcing the right people for their workforce, are among our key aims at Newcastle College.” An apprenticeship sees students employed within a business, doing a real job, while being supported through nationally accredited training. Anybody over the age of 16 can apply for an apprenticeship. This week’s national campaign has a Look Beyond theme, which celebrates the diversity of apprenticeships. With more than 30 apprenticeship routes on offer, there is something for everyone at Newcastle College. During the Apprenticeship Open Event, which runs between 3.30–7.00pm, presentations and Q&A sessions will be held to discuss a range of career paths. To mark the end of National Apprenticeship Week on Friday 7th February, the Newcastle College Apprenticeship Awards will be held at St James’ Park. The awards will celebrate and recognise apprentices who have made a significant contribution to their workplaces. Among the categories this year are the Personal Achievement, Special Recognition, and Outstanding Apprentice of the Year awards. Mr Tennant added: “This event helps us to highlight the importance of apprenticeships and shine a light on the powerful differences they can make to individuals and companies across the North East.” Sign up for the Newcastle College Apprenticeship Open Event. For more information on  apprenticeship courses at Newcastle College, visit https://www.ncl-coll.ac.uk/school-leavers/subject-areas/apprenticeships Picture caption: Pictured are winners from the 2019 Newcastle College Apprenticeship Awards

It’s no secret that the construction industry is currently facing an increasingly large skills shortage. The industry has long suffered from a lack of skilled workers, making it more difficult than ever to hit deadlines due to the shrinking talent pool. This is a big problem for the government, whose plans to build 300,000 new homes a year by the mid-2020s is becoming more of a pipe dream. In fact, according to the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the lack of skilled construction workers is at its highest point since 2007. In order to get back on track, the industry needs to recruit over 200,000 more workers by 2020. Below, industry experts at Vizwear explore what problems the skills shortage in construction is causing for the government’s homebuilding targets — and what companies can do to help fill key positions. What’s causing the skills shortage? The main problem that’s contributing towards the skills shortage is that as a whole, the construction industry is still battling with an image problem. “The industry needs to attract a fresh workforce to keep up with demands”, says Daniel Ure from online PPE retailer Vizwear. “But for many on the outside, the thought of working in construction still conjures up images of wolf-whistling workmen on building sites. To attract a new stream of workers, the industry needs to shake this negative image and show how the industry has developed.” It’s not just the difficulties of attracting new employees that are causing a skills shortage, though: it’s also due to the current workers.  Data from the 2011 census showed that in the construction industry, one in five employees were aged over 55. This means that by the early 2020s, when the industry should be hitting its homebuilding targets, most will have reached or be close to retirement age. An ageing workforce and an uphill recruitment battle are a combination that could have a detrimental effect on the industry.  What steps can be taken to close the gap? The biggest barrier facing the construction industry is presenting itself as a desirable career path to potential employees. Although often seen in a bad light, there are fantastic opportunities to be had in construction, including mechanics, engineering and electronics.  There are a number of ways that construction companies can reach out to the right candidates and ensure them that a career in construction is exactly what they’re looking for. 1. Increase education To ensure that the future workforce in construction is vibrant and engaged, young people need to be re-educated about what construction is really like A survey created by L&Q Group discovered that only one in ten children between the ages of 16 and 18 would consider a career in construction, fearing that the industry would be ‘challenging and unexciting’. Although around 50% said that they were interested in a Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) career, the construction industry simply wasn’t appealing enough. Interestingly, though, the students who said they would consider a construction career said that their reasoning was due to the excitement of the role. Working closely with schools and colleges to promote the industry is a great way to show young people that there are a number of avenues their career path can take in construction. By setting up a formal work experience programme, you can attract future workers with real, hands-on experience to give students the chance to experience the industry for themselves. 2. Don’t neglect training By offering proper training programmes, construction companies have the opportunity to help close the skills gap with new talent. It’s not just labour-intensive roles that are suffering from the skills shortage —  there is also a demand for tech and digital skills.  But rather than looking externally for these roles, use it as an opportunity to upskill your current staff. Nurturing talent within your business is great for morale; plus, you’ll help to develop your team’s careers, skill sets and better utilise ambitious and forward-thinking workers.  The training involved with upskilling current workers can be as simple as one-on-one mentoring, or you can make use of the wide range of online and practical courses available for skill development. There are also government-funded schemes available to help train future construction workers. For instance, we are currently in the middle of an 18-month fund set up by the government, launched with a budget of £22 million. This scheme launched 20 on-site hubs, of which people looking to join the industry, as well as people switching careers, can apply their knowledge in a real-world environment. 3. Look for skilled workers in the right places Ensuring that next-generation workers are knowledgeable about the industry is vital, but there are other skilled groups that are waiting to be snapped up by the industry. For example, over 14,000 leave the military every year, meaning the construction industry has a pool of highly trained individuals with transferable skills at their disposal. There are a number of companies that have already reaped the benefits of military leavers, and even provide specialist training and learning credits to get them fully trained as soon as possible. Military leavers offer the unique opportunity for construction firms to hire workers that can effectively follow instructions, work well as a team and can keep calm under pressure. It’s a unique opportunity that is too good to pass up. 4. Address the gender imbalance Part of the problem is that construction is a historically male-dominated industry. Between 2007 and 2016, reports found that the number of women workers in construction only rose by 0.7%, resulting in an incredibly low 12.8% total. But it’s not just workers in the industry, nearly half of construction workers claimed that they have never had a female manager. Whatever the role, women in construction are being overlooked. As women make up half of the population, it seems crazy that the industry is ignoring so much potential talent that it sorely needs to help fill the skills gap. Educating female students is a crucial

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