4 minute read
Training Strategies To Ease The Scaffolding Skills Shortage
Billy Jones, director at Millcroft, discusses the benefits of training in-house
For anyone working in any element of the construction industry, it feels like we’ve been discussing skills shortages for decades. But with an ageing skilled workforce and a lack of investment in training down the years, the issue is now at a crisis level.
Scaffolding is one of the industry’s most acutely affected by the skills gap, with the unpalatable accolade of ranking within the top five sectors in the UK for skills shortages. The physical demands of the job mean that we cannot rely on older, more experienced members of the site team indefinitely, and our over-reliance on skilled migrant workers from the EU is likely to be untenable after Brexit, as some of our current imported skills base is likely to return home and we can expect fewer migrant workers to join the pool of potential talent in the future.
These factors add up to a constant need to bring new skills into the industry and create a pipeline of trained scaffolders at all levels. Only then can we ensure a sustainable industry that’s able to replace retiring professionals with new skills and experience.
Recruitment Challenges
Developing a skilled workforce is a challenging task, even for a company like Millcroft that has a 40-year track record of training a retained team of scaffolders, providing opportunities for continued training and career development and promoting from within. Firstly, the sector has an image problem, widespread across construction disciplines, that makes recruitment of young people difficult. The physical demands of the job are not a natural choice for many school leavers, but it is important that we promote the diversity of roles and attract a diversity of candidates by highlighting the opportunities for career development and offering a varied and credible training journey.
At Millcroft, our strategy has always been to recruit people who are looking for a career in scaffolding, not simply a job. In that way, we bring people onto the team who want to be part of our culture of taking pride in what we do and offering a best practice approach. Our emphasis on training and in-house career development also helps with staff retention and, as competition for skilled scaffolding professionals continues to grow, we believe investment in training will be an increasingly important differentiator.
The other key challenge is the crisis in apprenticeship funding in the scaffolding industry. Plans for apprenticeship funding for non-apprenticeship levy paying scaffolding companies have been put on hold by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) until at least March 2020, which means that most companies in the sector have to fund any training requirements entirely on their own. Industry-wide, this has dis-incentivised companies from recruitment through apprenticeships, which affects the pipeline of new talent coming into the sector for us all.
Taking Training in Hand In-House
At Millcroft, we specialise in more complex and demanding scaffolding projects, including jobs in challenging sectors such as rail and heritage refurbishment, so having a higher proportion of advanced scaffolders on the team is central to our business model and the service we can offer clients.
For us, having a retained team and an in-house training facility not only means that we have the right mix of skills to answer the needs of our projects and our clients, but it also means that we are in control of the quality and frequency of the training our staff receive, which extends much further than core scaffolding skills and qualifications. From a business model perspective, this makes Millcroft more resilient to skills shortages and the threat of increased skills challenges in the future. Recruitment of the right calibre of candidates with the right attitude and workplace behaviours is never an easy task but developing our people in-house means that we’re confident of the real skills and experience they have and are less vulnerable to the wage inflation that happens as a consequence of a competitive recruitment market.
These were all factors in our decision to invest in a dedicated training centre, which provides facilities for both classroom learning and practical training across all disciplines, including scaffolding installation and scaffolding design. Carrying out training in-house not only enables us to control the frequency and quality of training, it also enables us to ensure inter-disciplinary competencies from our team, which benefits both the company and every individual member of staff by ensuring everyone understands their role in the success of a project.
Some companies might consider our team to be top-heavy with senior scaffolders but, for Millcroft, that advanced skill set is not only integral to delivering the types of projects we attract but it is also a natural progression for people who are loyal to the company. Career development plans can be flexible to suit the needs of the individual and the company and the scheduling of training time can also be managed around the demands of our active sites and site-based training and testing. The advanced skills within the business also provide a valuable resource for sharing skills and experience with newer recruits too.
Core Competency and Beyond
Our in-house training facilities allow us to begin the training process with our own team from the very first day a new recruit starts with the company. We run our own health and safety competency course to prepare new recruits to apply for their CISRS card and begin their career and on the job training.
Safety training is then one of the core disciplines taught in our training facility both for our own team throughout their career and as a service we offer to clients. In addition to regular health & safety training up-dates, we provide a number of safety courses, including asbestos awareness, manual handling and abrasive wheel training. We also train our own fire marshals, first aiders, and mental health champions.
As our site-based members of staff rise through the ranks, we also upgrade their safety training. Both site managers and site supervisors undergo relevant CITB Site Safety Plus training along with CITB Achievement & Behaviour Change training and our site supervisors receive risk assessment training.
Because training is so fundamental to our business strategy and we have the training facility available for use, we also go beyond mandatory health and safety training requirements and core competencies with additional courses that support the wellbeing of the team and contribute to business continuity for the company. These courses include substance abuse and mental health awareness training, which are designed to ensure that our teams recognise the risks and warning signs in themselves and others.
Compliance and Continuity
Ultimately, every company has an obligation to ensure all members of their team are competent and compliant with current health & safety legislation. For Millcroft, the benefits of an in-house training facility and commitment goes beyond compliance to ensure we have continuity in our team and consistency of quality project delivery. SM
