The Engineering & Building Skills Alliance (EBSSA) has welcomed the launch of the Construction Skills Mission Board (CSMB) – their inaugural meeting taking place today. Building services are represented by T Clarke CEO Mark Lawrence, who will be supported on this work by Actuate UK member ECA and EBSSA.
Engineering and building services cover the mechanical, electrotechnical and plumbing elements of buildings and infrastructure, representing 40% of the construction value of buildings, and 80% of their whole-life value. Moreover, while currently accounting for 20% of the built environment workforce, they represent 50% of apprentice starts under the IfATE (now Skills England) Construction and Build Environment Route. As such, they are essential in meeting the Government’s new homes targets, as well as retrofitting and maintaining current building stock to meet safety and net zero efficiency standard.
CSMB has been established by the Construction Leadership Council alongside Government (Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Department of Work and Pensions, Department of Education & Department of Business and Trade); it will be chaired by CLC co-chair Mark Reynolds, joined in its first meeting by Ministers, representatives of the supply chain and training organisations.
EBSSA will provide analysis of the sector skills demand and supply and utilise this evidence to ensure that the Board’s interventions are appropriate for our sectors and will support the closing of skills shortage gaps. It is important to note that the mechanical, electrical and plumbing sectors made the positive decision back in 1990 to withdraw from the CITB and its levy/ grants system.
Helen Yeulet BESA’s Competence Programme Director and co-chair of Actuate UK’s Skills group said:
“Collaboration sits at the heart of the new Construction Skills Mission Board—and that’s exactly what the sector needs. By bringing together government, industry, training providers and unions, we have a real opportunity to reshape how we attract, train and retain talent. As a collaborative body itself, EBSSA is ideally placed to support this mission and help drive practical outcomes that will ensure the building engineering workforce is equipped for both today’s challenges and tomorrow’s opportunities.”
Andrew Eldred, Deputy CEO at ECA and co-chair of Actuate UK’s Skills group said:
“The Construction Skills Mission Board is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to focus minds on how, working together, we can overcome long-standing barriers to improved workforce skills outcomes in the built environment. The proof of the pudding will inevitably take time to emerge, but by recognising the value of input from both industry leaders and broad-based, sector-led organisations such as ECA and EBSSA, the Mission Board is already in a stronger place than its predecessors, and this constitutes a positive first step.”
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Actuate UK, welcomes Government’s intention to act on its proposed reforms on late payments and take legislative measures to ban the use of retentions in construction contracts. Actuate UK and its members have been calling for a legislative change to stop the payment abuse of cash retentions in construction. We will continue to engage with Government and our members to ensure the implementation of this action is effective and drives the cultural change in our industry towards a safer and higher-quality built environment.
Engineering services alliance, Actuate UK, welcomes the first ever sector skills plan for the Engineering & Building Services brought together by the Engineering & Building Services Skills Authority (EBSSA) with input from Actuate UK and its members.