{"id":22560,"date":"2020-07-06T11:15:55","date_gmt":"2020-07-06T10:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=22560"},"modified":"2020-07-06T11:15:55","modified_gmt":"2020-07-06T10:15:55","slug":"avert-construction-apprenticeship-crisis-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=22560","title":{"rendered":"Avert construction apprenticeship crisis call"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The prime minister\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s recent promise to \u00e2\u20ac\u0098build, build, build\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 the UK back to economic health will not be\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0098get very far\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00c2\u00a0unless urgent action is taken to avert\u00c2\u00a0a crisis in skills and apprenticeship development, Unite said today Monday July 6.<\/p>\n

Unite says that a lethal\u00c2\u00a0combination of employers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 long-standing reluctance to invest in apprentices, allied to widespread\u00c2\u00a0redundancies because of the pandemic and a reluctance to recruit new entrants because the ongoing economic uncertainty, is likely to result in there being 20,000 fewer apprentices across the sector\u00c2\u00a0this autumn, vastly down\u00c2\u00a0from the\u00c2\u00a047,284 in England last year (2019).<\/p>\n

Industry forecasts have also indicated that there will be a sharp decline in the construction apprenticeship intake this autumn.\u00c2\u00a0Without the skills needed\u00c2\u00a0to support the sector, Unite fears that some construction contracts will have to be cancelled \u00e2\u20ac\u201c placing more construction workers on the dole.<\/p>\n

The union also understands that\u00c2\u00a0at least 50 per cent of electrical construction apprentices are currently furloughed, with growing concerns that as the job retention scheme winds\u00c2\u00a0down they will be made redundant.<\/p>\n

Chancellor must act <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Such is the union\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s concern, it\u00c2\u00a0has written to the chancellor Rishi Sunak requesting that\u00c2\u00a0the Chancellor uses his upcoming economic statement to\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u015bimplement without delay economic policies that can help save existing construction apprenticeship jobs and ensure the summer 2020 intake of construction apprentices is of a level to meet the industry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s future needs.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

For\u00c2\u00a0decades the construction\u00c2\u00a0industry has failed\u00c2\u00a0to recruit and train sufficient apprentices but the skills crisis has been masked by\u00c2\u00a0the heavy reliance on migrant labour.\u00c2\u00a0 However,\u00c2\u00a0with changes to government policy on immigration that option will no longer be so easily available.<\/p>\n

Additionally, construction has an ageing workforce and many workers are forced to leave the industry before state retirement age due to illness or injury.<\/p>\n

Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail said,\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe prime minister\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0pledge to build, build, build the country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s way out of this pandemic-caused crisis\u00c2\u00a0won’t get very far\u00c2\u00a0without a workforce.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bConstruction apprenticeship training is in danger of collapsing as an after-effect of the pandemic, which\u00c2\u00a0is\u00c2\u00a0why we’re calling on the chancellor to make it clear when he announces his plans for recovering the economy this coming week that our young workers will be given a chance of a career in construction.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAt the moment, for every one\u00c2\u00a0good quality apprenticeship, there are one thousand applicants. Young workers have to scale this huge mountain so it is only right that they have the chance to complete their apprenticeship and have a\u00c2\u00a0job at the end of their training.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bFurthermore, without these young\u00c2\u00a0skilled workers the industry will struggle to recover from the recession as contracts will be cancelled because there is\u00c2\u00a0a serious\u00c2\u00a0lack of expert\u00c2\u00a0workers.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere has been a long-term skills and training crisis in the construction sector but the Covid-19 pandemic along with the changes to immigration law have brought this to a head.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite is working closely with responsible employers and trade associations in order to tackle the challenges on apprentice recruitment but to really conquer the challenges we face, the government must step in to\u00c2\u00a0support existing apprentices and\u00c2\u00a0ensure that new recruits will\u00c2\u00a0have a pathway into construction employment,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Cartmail concluded.<\/p>\n

Unite is calling for the chancellor and the government to adopt the following measures: extension of apprentice wage support to safeguard jobs; repurposing of the apprenticeship levy funds to fund all first year apprentices\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 pay; public sector procurement policies that\u00c2\u00a0ensure the recruitment of high quality apprentice; the extension of the job guarantee scheme so that apprentice opportunities are delivered in public-funded infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n

READ:<\/em> Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s letter<\/a> to Rishi Sunak<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0By Barckley Sumner <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The prime minister\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s recent promise to \u00e2\u20ac\u0098build, build, build\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 the UK back to economic health will not be\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0098get very far\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00c2\u00a0unless urgent action is taken to avert\u00c2\u00a0a crisis in skills and apprenticeship development, Unite said today Monday July 6.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11726,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1308,1],"tags":[260,167,1295,1321],"wps_subtitle":"Unite warns there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be no \u00e2\u20ac\u0098build, build, build\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 unless govt acts\u00c2\u00a0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22560"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22560"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22564,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22560\/revisions\/22564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}