ConstructionSkills update

In early Summer CIC embarked upon a consultation programme to engage its three major groups of stakeholders – education providers, employers and professional institutions. This has involved regional consultations and meetings, questionnaires to relevant individuals and organisations, and most recently a ‘round table’ discussion of representative stakeholders in London.

The research gathered during this process, along with other recent CIC research projects, such as the Professional Services Skills Survey, will culminate in CIC’s input into the ConstructionSkills Sector Skills Agreement, together with the input from consultations held by the two other ConstructionSkills partners – CITB-ConstructionSkills and CITB (NI).

The Sector Skills Agreement will outline a number of key priority actions which will be carried out over the next two years focusing on improving business performance; image and recruitment; and qualifying the workforce.
As part of the overall ConstructionSkills consultation process ConstructionSkills and SummitSkills are holding a joint conference – Altogether Stronger – on 23 November. This will see both SSCs coming together to drive forward collaborative action plans, involving employers and stakeholders, that will address the key training and skills challenges facing the construction and building services engineering sectors. Delegates will be invited to discuss a range of solutions to training and skills issues, and will hear from leading figures from industry and Government. News from the conference will be reported back in a future issue of Cascade.