UCATT Conference, Perth, Scotland

Mr President, Delegates, good morning, everybody. It is a great pleasure to be with you today for your 2008 conference. It is also a great pleasure to be with you in here Scotland, and I shall return to that in a few moments.  I am delighted that your General Secretary Alan Ritchie has invited me here to speak with you. It has given me the opportunity this morning and indeed at dinner last night, to listen to what you think are the issues and challenges that we face and thank you all in person for the good work you are doing for the benefit of our industry.  I also try to keep in close touch with the General Secretary, and we meet for private discussions several times a year.  I find those discussions most helpful and valuable; and they also involve another Trade Union leader who is, like Alan, on the Board of ConstructionSkills.  Both Trade Union Board members are greatly valued by me, and I thought that Alan made a really resounding speech this morning.

The last time I was invited to speak with you was at your conference in 2006, which was held on the English Riviera, in Torquay. This was following the announcements that London had won the Olympics in 2012 – a momentous moment for everyone in Britain, but particularly for our industry, who would be called upon to deliver the most high profile construction project so far this century.   Alas, I could not be with you then because my beloved wife, Caroline, who was then very ill, actually died that weekend, and our Chief Executive, Peter Lobban, delivered the speech on my behalf.

At that conference, Peter was able to share with you the excitement and the buzz that the Olympic announcement had created.  He also gave an outline of our plans for the development of the Olympic Village and what that would mean for workers across the entire construction footprint – from contractors, professionals, employers, trade unions and education and training bodies.

That was two years ago, and things have shifted significantly since then. Today, we are operating in a very different market place. The political and economic landscape is changing and we appear to be entering a period of economic uncertainty.  This is being felt first in the house building sector. But despite this, I remain optimistic, because ours is a great industry. Construction has grown over 30% in the last 10 years, both in output and workforce.

And, our latest Construction Skills Network report shows that, despite initial fears, much of the construction industry remains buoyant. In fact, it shows that employment levels in our industry will need to increase by 7% between now and 2012 to meet demand.

In addition to the Olympic Village, we have been called upon to complete a number of other high profile projects – each one iconic and unique in its own right. There are 7,500 significant new construction projects in the pipeline to the value of £190billion and the Government has committed to a £16billion building programme for schools, hospitals and roads over the next four years. These projects will transform local areas, improve lives and provide opportunities and employment for local people.

As an industry, we already employ 2.2million people, with total turnover £176billion a year, and contribute 8% to the UK GDP. But our recent CSN report highlights that this is set to increase. We need to find over 88,000 new people every year for the next five years. Specifically, this means that we need over 30,000 professionals every year and over 57,000 craft people every year for the next five years.

This is a challenge we are more than ready to face – but we cannot do this alone. More than ever, we need the help and support of our partners in widening our recruitment pool, appealing to new groups of people and making sure our existing workforce is fully qualified and ready to step up to the challenge and get on with the job in hand. The stakes are high.  We cannot afford to fail.

We need new people, committed people and talented people.  We need a home grown workforce that helps to build not only a sustainable construction industry, but also sustainable communities. This is our opportunity to leave a lasting legacy. After the construction projects have been delivered, we want to retain qualified construction workers who have been given opportunities to train and progress in our industry.

But we have our fair share of obstacles to overcome along the way. We recognise that construction is not the easiest industry in which to train. Trainers can provide knowledge – but to prepare a workforce adequately, they need to practise, practise, practise. No one shows this better than great sporting stars like Tiger Woods!

This is a catch 22 situation for us, since ours is a fragmented industry. The industry relies on a workforce involved in sub contracting and short term contracts.  But the downside to this is that less than 20% of the workforce is employed by large companies, and the number of small and medium sized employers and self employed contractors means that it is difficult to get our apprentices good work experience placements to help them train and qualify. 

There are many thousands of young people, particularly in southern England, studying full-time in FE Colleges without an employer. This means that it is more difficult for them to achieve an NVQ or complete a framework apprenticeship. Many of them leave the industry or just start work – though not properly trained or qualified. This is a particular problem for young women and people from ethnic minorities, but also for many young men.  This is not the case in Scotland, and I will come back to that in a few minutes.

We also need to qualify our existing workforce and make sure that they are given opportunities, whether it’s improving their basic skills or up-skilling them, so they can respond to new ways of working in the industry or progress up the career ladder if that’s what they want to do.

To this end, I’m pleased that ConstructionSkills has been working closely with UCATT to develop a bi-lateral agreement which forms part of the Sector Skills Agreement for Construction. The commitment to work together is based on a number of shared strategic goals:

1. addressing skills gaps and shortages in the construction industry
2. providing construction workers with greater opportunities for training and development  - improving basic skills and promoting the idea of lifelong learning
3. increasing the number of apprenticeships to provide an effective route for new entrants at craft level
4. increasing the number of experienced construction workers with appropriate qualifications
5. increasing the number of construction workers registered for skills cards – CSCS and affiliates
6. raising health and safety standards in the construction industry
7. developing and supporting Union Learning Representatives/Mentors in the Construction Sector

We have made some headway already. The commitment to work together to compile funding bids to various pots, including the Union Learning Fund, has been successful in securing monies amounting to over £450,000 for various training initiatives. 

UCATT is also attracting CITB-ConstructionSkills Qualifying the Workforce funding.  This is supporting health and safety tests, achievements of vocational qualifications and training for Union Learning Representatives.

We are delighted that UCATT is helping us with the development of the National Skills Academy for Construction concept. This will result in all major construction projects developing a skills and employment plan for the lifetime of that project. This will hopefully encourage clients, contractors and their sub-contractors to commit to more apprenticeship places, more up-skilling for those already working in the industry, best practice health and safety training and other activities such as work experience.

I was also delighted to note how enthusiastically UCATT has picked up on Government initiatives such as the employer’s Skills Pledge.  This enables you to help your membership to increase basic skills such as literacy and numeracy, as part of Train to Gain.

Last year, ConstructionSkills signed up 1,000 construction companies – covering 60,000 employees - to the Skills Pledge. This means that construction companies account for almost 50% of the Pledges made across all sectors. This is something that gave me great personal satisfaction as Chairman of ConstructionSkills, and I wrote to the Secretary of State about it.  The Skills Minister, David Lammy, has also spoken favourably about it. Work is now underway to ensure that these construction companies have the training and development plans and grant support necessary to act on this commitment. To have UCATT’s involvement with this gives me confidence that we can up the pace as we progress through 2008.

I noted in your excellent Education and Training report how UCATT plans to continue to lobby Government to deliver funding opportunities to ensure that construction workers receive the same opportunities for skills and personal development as other employment sectors. We too represent our industry’s voice in Government – in Westminster, the Welsh Assembly and the Scottish Parliament - and so we add our voice to yours.  We all demand appropriate skills policy and funding, so that we can make a difference and provide our workers with the skills we need and which they deserve.

To that end, we are positive about the Government’s plans to invest more in apprenticeships and we will continue to influence the outcome of the current Apprenticeship Review.

I’m also pleased that recently, our calls for further funding have been answered; and we were awarded £17million from the Learning Skills Council to redevelop our National Construction College at our Bircham Newton site in Norfolk. This will provide excellent training facilities and opportunities for apprentices and workers in the specialist trades, many of which can only be done on large sites such as Bircham Newton. 

And on that note, we are very much looking forward to the opening of our new ConstructionSkills office and National Construction College here in Scotland.  August will see the opening of brand new facilities in Glasgow for the training of apprentices and experienced workers. I do hope some of you can join us on that occasion.  I always greatly value my visits to Scotland, because there is very strong commitment to training in this nation.  For every 100 people on site in Scotland, there are 7 apprentices.  In the London area and nearby to London, the figure is 0.9.  This is a great problem for the south of England in getting well trained young people into our industry.  Scotland takes training seriously.  It is part of its culture, so does northern England.  Alas, the further south one goes, the less direct employment and training there is, and we need new ways of dealing with this problem.

Training is crucial to our industry’s success.  Not only do we influence Government to secure the funding for more training, but we also provide grants, which are generated from the CITB-ConstructionSkills Levy, so that employers can train their staff. Last year, £170.8million in CITB-ConstructionSkills Grant, college fees and other training allowances were claimed by employers. That paid for all manner of courses – from one day health and safety training to longer term sustainability courses for managers and directors. This year, we predict that in the region of 25,000 employers, and their employees, will benefit from this investment. We must continue to build on this year on year to develop our industry and the people who work within it.

I commend you for your plans, as a trade union, to work in partnership and maximise funding for the benefit of your membership and for the construction industry. I also recognise and appreciate your commitment to drive up standards within your membership.

I have always said, and will continue to say, that ours is a great industry, a  historic industry, building great buildings for many centuries, but also a modern and progressive one.  In decades to come elderly men and women, long after I am gone,  will be able to take their grandchildren to an iconic building and say, “I built that”. These buildings will be here as our testimony long after our passing. By working together and formulating the relationships and partnerships we have, we are quite literally building Britain.  This is our opportunity to make sure that we provide our workers with the right skills so they can build a lasting legacy for us all.   And that is what ConstructionSkills, in conjunction with UCATT and other shareholders, is there to do.