For International Women’s Week 2020, Constructing Excellence Yorkshire and Humber have partnered with Efficiency North to bring you a discussion on how apprenticeship pathways are helping to close the diversity gap in construction. This particular debate will focus primarily on gender diversity however attendees are encouraged to come along and air their views on related topics.
ABOUT
We are delighted to have secured several apprenticeship students to talk about their particular journey into construction, including challenges faced, why they have chosen their careers, current experiences and their hopes and ambitions for the future.
We will also have an engineering company represented on the panel who will talk about the issue of diversity and apprenticeships from an employer’s perspective.
THE FORMAT
Each panel member will talk for around 5-10 minutes from their perspective including experiences, their particular journey, thoughts on diversity e.t.c. This will be followed by an open discussion and Q and A with the audience - so please do come armed with questions!
THE PANEL
Amelia Johnson-Lynch, Construction Management Apprentice, Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing
Daniel Roche, Roche Civil Engineering (Employer Perspective)
Anne Benson, Gas Supervisor, Mears
Tilly Priestley, Trade Apprentice, Mears
Emma Luckman, Degree Apprenticeship Student, Leeds Beckett University
For International Women’s Week 2019, Constructing Excellence Yorkshire and Humber are delighted to be bringing you a lunchtime discussion on the highly topical issue of future skills for the industry lead by a panel of senior sector professionals.
Topics covered will include (but not limited to) sub-sector specific future requirements, the skills shortage and how companies/organisations can attract, recruit and support new talent, mentoring, retention and diversity, digital and technical skills and new models of education (i.e. degree apprenticeships).
THE FORMAT
Each panel member will talk for around 5-10 minutes on skills from their perspective, followed by an open discussion and Q and A - so come with questions!
THE PANEL
Caroline Fattorini, Director of Building Consultancy, Bowman Riley
Angela Barnicle, Chief Officer, Asset Management & Regeneration, Leeds City Council
Nahim Ruhi-Khan, Head of Responsive Repairs, Voids, Disrepair and Corporate Property Management Services, Leeds City Council
Lisa Molloy, Commercial Director, Southbay Civil Engineering Ltd
Josie Rothera, Course Director, MSc Civil Engineering, School of Built Environment and Engineering, Leeds Beckett University and Company Director at Steer Support and Mentoring CIC
CHAIR
Sarah Wilson, Partner, Head of Construction, Shulmans LLP
On 25th May we held the second of our Hull based Constructing Excellence breakfasts at Gosschalks Solicitors, this time tackling one of the most prevalent issues in the industry at the moment, the skills shortage. It has been predicted that the industry will create around 190,000 new jobs by the end of 2018 but the growing fear is that the talent will not be there to fill those posts. At our event we heard from Futureworks Yorkshire and Wates Group on how they are working to create apprenticeships and encourage new entrants to our industry in order to try and tackle this deificit.
Debbie Hall, Business Reporter at Hull Daily Mail has done a summary of the main points in her article dated 31st May (link here). The article has also been reproduced below for ease.
L-R Angie Eardley (Wates), Janet Mulcrone (Leeds Beckett), Tom Oulton (CEYH), Liz Schofield (CEYH), Matthew Fletcher (Gosschalks)
Construction firms urged to help tackle impending shortage in talent
COMPANIES are being urged to help tackle the skills shortage in the construction industry. The issue was the focus of an “excellence breakfast” hosted by Hull law firm Gosschalks. The event, organised by Constructing Excellence in Yorkshire & Humber (CEYH), was held amid growing fears there will not be sufficient talent within the country to fill the predicted 190,000 new jobs that will be created in construction by the end of 2018. The industry is seen as one of the leading pillars of the UK economy and the lack of required skills could have a huge impact on economic recovery, according to CEYH. The event saw more than 30 delegates from a range of contractors, councils, training groups and construction consultancies, in attendance.
Steve Savage, Development Director at Gosschalks, opened the proceedings and Tom Oulton, chairman of CEYH, gave an introduction in which he spoke about the Government’s Construction Strategy for 2016 to 2020, which sets out to increase productivity in government construction to deliver £1.7bn efficiencies and support 20,000 apprenticeships over the period.
One of the speakers was Julie Deeley, operations manager for Futureworks Yorkshire, one of the organisations working to tackle the skills deficit and nurture homegrown talent. She offered insight into how Futureworks is working with construction companies, local organisations and communities across Yorkshire to offer increased apprenticeships and work experience opportunities. Ms Deeley said: “It is not about providing all the answers today, it is about opening your mind to what your company can do about meeting this skills shortage.” Futureworks is based in Hull and Rotherham and delivers the award- winning YORfuture scheme across the Yorkshire and Humber region. It provides apprenticeships within the sector, including technical, trades, administration and manufacturing/distribution roles.
Ms Deeley told delegates that the YORfuture shared apprenticeship scheme provided a solution to apprenticeship recruitment when employers may not have the resources to take apprentices on a full-time basis. Asked about the difficulty of encouraging schools to see the opportunities that exist in the industry, Ms Deeley said: “What we need to do is get out there as much as possible and put out the word on construction and what a good career it is. We need, as a sector, to get the message out that there are many different careers you can have in construction, in particular for females. ”
Another speaker was Angie Eardley, community investment adviser at Wates Group, a family-owned construction company that is currently helping to create an £80m housing development in Hull for people with care needs. She spoke to the audience about the group’s community investment commitments and it’s supply chain and social enterprise engagement. The delegates heard the CITB, the national training organisation for construction in the UK, has reported that another 230,000 workers will be needed in the construction sector in the next five years – a figure that equates to 3,230 people each year in the Yorkshire and Humber region.
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Julie and Angie’s presentations along with a storify of the best tweets/images from the morning can be viewed at the links below.
Click below for full Presentations from 25th May 2016
G4C – Generation for Change – was established in 1998 as the junior branch of Constructing Excellence and, following Constructing Excellence’s lead in collaborative best practice, G4C seeks to engage and inspire the next generation of construction professionals across disciplines. The group holds events and initiatives to provide members with opportunities both for networking and access to the latest innovative thinking to equip them with the necessary skills to drive continual improvement throughout the industry.
G4C Yorkshire & Humber are holding the first annual G4C Awards 2015 in Sheffield. These brand new awards aim to showcase excellence and celebrate the achievements of up and coming young construction professionals in the Yorkshire and Humber region and the companies who support and train the future leaders of the industry.
There are 6 categories to compete for, which will be judged by a panel of local industry leaders and experts:
Apprentice of the Year
Student of the Year
Trainee of the Year
New Professional of the Year
Commitment to Employee Development
G4C Award for Young Achiever
The inaugural G4C Awards winners will be presented with their awards at a special ceremony to be held at 6.00pm on Friday 13 February 2015 at the Mercure St Paul’s Hotel in Sheffield city centre.
If you have any queries about any of the above or just want to discuss the awards further, please contact [email protected]
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Constructing Excellence in Yorkshire and Humber (CEYH) is the regional partner to Constructing Excellence, the single organisation charged with driving the change agenda in construction, housing and regeneration.
It is run by the School of Built Environment, Engineering and Computing at Leeds Beckett University.
