Why your first investment should be in your colleagues

Don’t wait for someone else to train the next generation, says Cornwall Group chair Mark Mitchell.

The skills crisis in the construction industry is very real, and is having a negative impact on the recovery we expect in 2025.

The government often talks about ‘productivity’ as a key indicator of the health of UK plc, but in 2023, UK productivity was around 18% below the US (ONS). In general terms, productivity has been sluggish since the financial crash in 2008.

If you overlay a graph showing the number UK construction workers during that period, you can see that they went from just under 2.6 million in 2009 to just under 2.1 million in the first quarter of 2024.

Simply put, fewer workers result in project delays, which increase costs and delay the delivery of key infrastructure. It also puts pressure on the management of quality and health and safety. All of which affects productivity.

Why are numbers falling, and can we do anything about it?

A key factor is our ageing workforce. It is estimated that around 20% of construction workers are in their 50s, with many choosing to retire. This has been exacerbated by the pandemic, with many people choosing to reduce their hours and work flexibly.

And Brexit has meant our pool of migrant workers has dwindled.

It is very encouraging that the government has put housebuilding at the top of their agenda, because it should mean an increased flow of orders through the supply chain. But without the workers there to make it happen, recovery could be slower than expected.

Research carried out by data specialist, Savanta ComRes, indicated that only 5% of students actively considered careers in construction. Also, in 2021, only 713,000 people were registered as apprentices, the lowest since 2010. 

The doomed Apprenticeship Levy didn’t help, because it took vital funds from large employers and was very specific about how and when it could be used. In fact, as of November 2023, over £3.3bn was returned to the treasury, unspent.

It is our view at Cornwall Group that there is no single solution to this crisis. I could keep throwing statistics at you all day, but all that would do is demonstrate the complexity of the problem.

Instead, our starting point is that we need skilled colleagues, so it is in our interest to train them.

One excuse I hear time and time again from other business leaders is that what’s the point of investing in all that training only for another company to offer an extra 50p an hour and effectively steal all your hard work? I’ll come to that later.

But first, let me introduce our new apprentices. Joining this quarter are: Madison (marketing) and Mylo (IT), who are joining us at head office in Truro; Logan and Reece (both manufacturing) are joining the St Austell site; Cody, Rome and Brandon are joining Cornwall Manufacturing in Plymouth; and Quincy has joined Forward Glass in Birmingham.

Quincy’s appointment is particularly exciting because it brings Forward Glass further into the Cornwall Group family. Forward Glass has been part of the Cornwall Group for a year now, and we have slowly brought their culture in line with ours.

This has involved investment in new machinery, new IT systems, new transport vehicles, and much more. But the launch of our apprentice programme in Birmingham proves that we are genuinely investing in the future, and we are serious about investing in people and skills.

We work very closely with Glass & Fenestration Training Solutions (GFTS) to devise suitable apprenticeships for our new colleagues, which bring many benefits. Primarily, we can help develop courses that suit our specific needs, and GFTS have been able to accommodate our requirements across multiple sites in multiple counties. They have also bought into our commitment to ensure that 10% of our team are on an Apprenticeship Journey at any one point – a commitment I think very few in our industry can claim!

We are also very flexible in our approach to apprenticeships. For example, all our network businesses allow Apprentices to experience all aspects of the trade, even starting on one site and progressing to another. This gives them a great view of the industry, but it means that we benefit from colleagues who have truly settled on one area of expertise.

Not tying ourselves solely to college courses means that we can recruit apprentices throughout the year, and not just at fixed points in the education system’s calendar. This has proved particularly useful during January and February when many students drop out of traditional college courses and choose to follow a vocational route instead – one that pays.

If we were to only think of the cost (and it is a big investment) then our apprentice journey would be very short, but the truth is we learn just as much from our students as they do from us, and many colleagues stay with us for many years. In fact, of those who stay, 95% have more than five years’ service. We even had someone rejoin the company in October who had left to try somewhere new last year.

On top of apprenticeships, we are also working with Plymouth College to trial their T-Level programme, and we have one recruit sign up to a 45-week placement with us.

I don’t think the skill crisis will improve if we all sit back and wait for someone else to invest in the critical training programmes we need.

We have long had a successful apprenticeship programme (we won awards and commendations at this year’s Truro and Penwith College’s Cornwall Apprenticeship Awards) and we fully intend to continue, improving productivity in the process.

www.cornwallglass.co.uk

Previous articleTwo adventurers, one mountain
Next articleInaugural individual excellence award recognises Certass chair