Our New Housing Professional finalists have all blogged for us from a session on day one at TAI 2017 – here’s Abdul Hafeez, Taff Housing Association’s blog.
Abdul Hafeez, Taff Housing Association
It’s no secret that the construction industry is in the midst of a skills shortage. Construction relies heavily on its workforce more than most other sectors, it is a major sector of the UK economy generating approximately £100 billion annually. According to the CITB the number of jobs in the industry has reached 2.1m, nearly 100,000 more than two years ago and levels not seen before summer 2010. Over 230,000 new workers are needed in the next five years. With housing output forecast to grow, and ambitious Government targets across the UK to increase the volume of available homes by 2020,
The MEARS Group have developed a programme to claw back at the skills shortage, and to introduce women into the industry by introducing a series of workshops, aiming at providing a practical and inspiring learning and development experience within the construction industry,
In the past there has been a taboo about women entering the construction industry, as they are believed not to poses the right skills sets etc. However Past evidence has shown that women can step up to the mark such as during the world wars women had to take on the roles that men had previously held.
MEARS Group is actively changing this perception in providing the skills that are required as well the information on how to get into the industry, as well as the progression and support systems available to them.
Construction work comes with this stigma of doing manual work and the image of dirty poorly paid workforce. These matters need to be addressed. The MEARS group is aiming at school curriculums from stages 2 to 4 as well as the adult core curriculums to address this issue, as this particular pool of people are the key to lessen the skills shortage within the UK.
They have developed a school toolkit to use as resource within schools to increase the awareness of the opportunities that are available within the industry. The toolkit consist of four modules which are all linked into the national curriculum as the workshop that are designed to build on the learners skills that they are developing as part of the existing curriculum. The MEARS group has already rolled out some these programmes in schools in England, and have reported on great success from this scheme.