People and Skills

City-Wide Construction ILM (Intermediate Labour Market)

"Unlocking construction jobs for local people"

The aim of the feasibility study is to identify ways of increasing the number of non-employed Leicester residents that can access construction qualifications and jobs through the major regeneration activities being undertaken within the city.

Organisation: Leicester City Council

Completion Date: 31/03/2005

Location

Leicester

Project Description

Quotation (max. 50 words).
Author

Background
The construction industry is training half the number of people that it needs to replace people leaving the industry and to cope with growth. This results in rising costs to clients who should therefore ensure that their contractors meet minimum standards of training and equal opportunitites.

Job creation

• The major new investments in Leicester could generate 100 person-years of work for new construction trainees and 400 jobs per year for local skilled/experienced workers.
• There are 700 people currently seeking construction work in Leicester, but many of these will need training improve their skills.
• In 2003, 543 youung people in the East Midlands young people applied to the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) - which sets industry standards - for apprenticeships but only 156 (28.7%) were matched with an employer.

Expansion of training
Construction training providers are at full capcacity and cannot easily expand because of staff recruitment problems. However, much of this capacity is taken up with full-time students and it is not clear how many of these then enter the industry. Further research on this question is recommended as a way of ensuring maximum benefit from the available training provision.

There are at least four 'Intermediate Labour Markets' providers in construction in Leicester, offering approximately 70-100 job opportunities per year. More could be done to ensure the progression of these new entrants to the industry.

Outcomes

Feasibility study and the next stage of development:

• To do a joint 'Equal' bid in conjunction with Derby, Nottingham, and Leicester.
• To target the identified training and job opportunities it will be necessary for Leicester City Council and public sector developers to use their contractual and Planning powers to require the participation of developers and contractors.

Engaging people in training

• The beneficiaries of a new construction initiative should include school and college leavers as well as unemployed people.
• For the long-term unemployed and under-achieving young people there should be an extension of Intermediate Labour Market provision in construction and developers and contractors will need to set aside suitable packages of works that can be undertaken by the providers.
• There needs to be an establishment of an 'apprentice employer' orgnisation by a CITB member company which will act as the employer and training manager but would charge apprentices out to site for their work experience.

Involvement of other agencies

• Job Centre Plus should establish a dedicated construction register to maximise job opportunitites for local skilled/experienced workers and offer matching services to contractors. It should be made a contract condition that all site vacancies are placed with this service.
• Public agencies should consider setting up a register/profile of local SMEs (small and medium enterprises) in the construction sector, then contractors could be requried to include one firm from this list on each supply tender list.

Project Contacts

Project manager:
Trevor Mee
Tel: 0116 252 6421
E-mail: meeet001@leicester.gov.uk
Website: www.leicester.gov.uk

LSEP Contact:
Phil Durban
E-mail: phild@lsep.co.uk
Website: www.lsep.co.uk