Skills Minister David Lammy has backed a new industry Task Force set up to double the number of successful construction apprenticeships in England over the next four years.

The Skills Minister attended the inaugural meeting of the Cross-industry Task Force on Apprenticeship Numbers, an employer-led group formed to identify the perceived barriers to apprenticeship take-up and to tackle the current shortfall in employer vacancies.

Currently less than 10 per cent of construction employers take on apprentices, at a time when the UK is facing a massive demand for skilled workers and needs to recruit an additional 87,600 workers each year for the next five years. In that time 7,500 major new contracts with a total estimated value of nearly £250bn are projected to start in addition to the ongoing repair and maintenance work and construction projects already in progress.

-- Advertisement --

The Task Force will seek to raise awareness of the business benefits of taking on apprenticeships as well as the risk to industry of not investing in the workforce of the future.

The membership will consist of key figures from industry including employers, federation representation, Union officials, Government departments and the Learning and Skills council. The Task Force will complement the Governments own cross-industry Apprenticeship Ambassadors Network and will be chaired and led by Geoff Lister, President of the Federation of Master Builders and members of the ConstructionSkills Board.

Skills Minister David Lammy said: "In order to deliver major projects such as the Thames Gateway development and the Olympics we need a vibrant and fully skilled construction workforce, and apprenticeships are central to ensuring this is achieved. That is why over £1bn in Government funding has been ring-fenced to increase overall places across all sectors from 250,000 today to more than 400,000 by 2020.

"I call on employers in the construction industry to work with us to ensure that an apprenticeship place is available for everyone who needs one."

For more information on ConstructionSkills Apprenticeships please visit: www.cskills.org/apprenticeships or contact your local ConstructionSkills office.

(JM)