Search results

"This is a joint Island venture with the Western Isles, Shetland and Orkney local authorities. As island groupings with more than 80% of micro employers, anticipated levels of high unemployment, an aging population and an aging workforce, support with recruitment, accreditation and training is commonly reported to be an increasing problem. The Island employers need to encourage people to live, earn and learn locally. Across the islands, the demand for construction skills aligned to a just transition to net zero and wider environmental/sustainability will be critical to reach the commitments set out in the Islands Growth Deal.  Key projects that will require increased access to construction skills from 2023-2033 include: Orkney Islands Centre for Net Zero, Orkney Research and Innovation Campus Phase 2, World Heritage Site Gateway Project, Scapa Flow Future Fuels Hub, Creative Islands Wellbeing, Transmission Cable and Community Wind Farm projects. Shetland Dales Voe Decommissioning, Saxa Vord Space Centre, Hydrogen and Offshore Wind Developments, Sandveien Redevelopment, Energy Isles Wind Farm, Staney Hill Housing, New Gilbert Bain Hospital, Fair Isle Ferry Western Isles Deep Water Port, Stornoway Primary, HHP Housing, Lochmaddy Uist Ferry Port, Barra and Vatersay Community Campus, Water supply Upgrade, Wind Farm expansion,,Spaceport – Uist
Along with the many capital works that have been identified, there are a large volume of repairs, maintenance, house building and smaller commercial builds. As the islands are experiencing an influx of tourism the islands infrastructure needs upgrading. Without new major investment into new people into the construction industry we are going to reach crisis point. Funding opportunities like this are pivotal to the future success of our economy and communities. A training officer will be assigned to work with the individuals and the employers and the project will aim to have identified buddies on each site who can work with the participants and be that person who shows them the ropes and gives them a better understanding of the roles within construction. Experienced Apprentices are often good models for shadowing new entrants as they are fresh enough to remember what it is like to be the new person and have enough experience to give them valuable advice and guidance. "

Barnado’s has established links with employers Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), Balfour Beatty and Kier and all the Construction group networks in the Highlands which they will utilise to train and support individuals into employment. Barnardo’s Works ETS has specialist knowledge and vast experience in meeting the needs of its clients to help them progress and evolve in their employment. Balfour Beatty is already working in collaboration with Barnardo’s Works through its Community Benefit initiative via its contract with the Scottish Prison Service. Through the SACO project we will offer Regular “touch points” - telephone/e-mail, formally recorded reviews and face to face contact visits at various points of the new entrants journey, mentor support – the offer of delivery of mentor training to employers and new managers to assist with supporting a new entrant into employment.

The Virtual tasters project will develop a standard and quality that positively promotes construction as an aspirational career path and is engaging and informative to support individuals to consider a career in construction.

Careers Collective Ltd will work in close collaboration with Education providers Experience Hubs to ensure the virtual tasters are aligned to their needs, and the outputs from this commission can be successfully incorporated into the Onsite Experience programme and that virtual tasters can be rolled-out to a wider audience within the construction industry.

This commission will develop, identify, evaluate, and increase the number and quality of work tasters specific to the construction industry in Scotland. The Tasters will be embedded into Scottish Careers processes. The Tasters will promote construction as an aspirational career path to support individuals make good career choices. This will include more people from a greater diverse background including those without a connection to construction are inspired to pursue a career in this Industry.

A suite of guidance documents will be developed to give clarity to employers on how to deliver a good quality taster including taster plans for large and small construction sites and across key skill areas. As part of the project 32 regions will be covered in the development and roll-out of Tasters to comply with Scottish Government legislation to provide support to isolated communities such as Shetland.

Brickwork Masterclasses, a Home Building Skills Partnership initiative delivered by NHBC in partnership with the Association of Brickwork Contractors (ABC) and funded by CITB, are designed to deliver practical skills and knowledge on the most common brickwork issues found by our inspection teams. Delivered by our highly skilled and experienced NHBC Building Inspectors, we will discuss practical guidance on improving quality and standards and how to promote awareness of good practice on site. Sessions can be delivered on or near your site provided that a suitable room is available to seat the attendees, such as a large site office or canteen.

Through the development and delivery of a mental health and wellbeing digital learning hub and supporting digital campaign, hard to reach (micro-organisations) in the construction industry will be better equipped to manage mental health, wellbeing and resilience issues that they encounter in the workplace.

Laing O’Rourke, in collaboration and partnership with other Construction Companies and Trade Organisations, will engage the Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity and The Samaritans to develop a Wellbeing & Resilience Hub. The aim is to raise awareness, develop skills and inform construction workers of themes of wellbeing, mental health and resilience. Specifically, the project will 'target' individuals who work for smaller businesses, and those classed as hard to reach. The project will work with the Samaritans to deliver a marketing campaign to drive traffic to the digital hub, increasing participation and long-term engagement. 

The Timewise: Designing Flexible Career Pathways in Construction project will work with several major contractors and their supply chains to gain new insight into how to make flexible working work in the construction industry, by designing and piloting new approaches to flexible working construction sites and in HQ offices, in order to evaluate, codify and share insights to create roadmap for wider change in the industry.

The project will deliver digital change in construction companies by upskilling leaders by developing three leadership training programmes that adopt an action learning approach. 
This method delivers change through achievable cycles of learn / test / do / review that allow leaders to undertake gradual stages of digital adoption, learn through the process but also taking practical steps to digitalise during the training. These programmes will increase adaptive capability and approaches to unlock and exploit digital opportunities within the sector.

Each training programme is proposed to be accredited with ILM at L3 (team level); L5 (departmental level); L7 (organisational level). The project aims to ensure training is eligible for grant funding as an exit strategy. 48 construction companies will each put two leaders through the programme. This will help to unlock digital change at strategic and operational levels of a business.

After the project participating employers will have taken measurable steps to digitalisation. The qualifications will be available for industry to access and benefit from. NFB will follow process to ensure they are eligible for grant funding.

The project will deliver skills and knowledge to enable business leaders across the supply chain to embed digital ledger technology (DLT / block chain) by demonstrating the business case for doing so, as well as practical digital concepts and methods. It will provide guidance on enhancements to existing processes and behaviours to enable this technology to be adopted.

The project will establish a network of champions and pathfinders across the supply chain to aid communication and engagement supporting the validation of digital ledger technology. It will develop training content that will upskill construction leaders across the supply chain in how to fully unlock this technology.

After the project, participating employers will have taken measurable steps to digitalisation. A white paper will report on the training outcomes and provide best practice guidance on how to embed DLT in the supply chain. The training materials use to achieve this will be made freely available to industry.

Abbey Access Training, Construction Skills Solutions,  Lindum Construction and a group of Lincolnshire Construction employers propose to join forces offering young people on the NEET register, Unemployed Women and Long Term Unemployed an innovative 3-staged engagement programme.