Apprenticeships are "essential to the future wellbeing of the construction industry," the Government's Chief Construction Advisor has told a Parliamentary Reception.

Speaking at the reception, Peter Hansford said: "If we are to transform construction, we must focus on attracting and retaining the people we need for this industry – for the present and for the future. I don't believe that there's any single magic bullet to solve our skills shortages, but we know that without those talented individuals we will be unable to meet the industry's order book. Or match the Government's infrastructure ambitions.

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"The Leadership Council welcomes the Apprenticeships Commission, and the role both the Commission, and the Apprenticeship Summit, can play in helping us up our game."

The reception was hosted by the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations. More than 100 people were in attendance, including MPs, civil servants, CITB and industry representatives and construction apprentices.

Adrian Belton CITB Chief Executive said: "The construction industry in UK needs to recruit 120,000 new apprentices in the next five years in order to continue to drive the economy forward.

"Construction is worth £73 billion to the economy. It employs 2.1 million people. But with 180,000 new jobs being created in the next 5 years and 400,000 members of the workforce reaching retirement age in the next 10 years, we're in a real 'race for talent'.

"Apprentices are the lifeblood of our industry and we need to ensure that working with schools and colleges we are doing everything we can to encourage talented young people into careers in construction."

(IT/JP)