The case for Centres of Excellence in sustainable building design

degree of competition between organisations, and even between professional
bodies in the construction industry is a further barrier to developing widespread
low carbon skills. This suggests perhaps the need for a single supervisory body
from amongst the professional institutions charged with maintaining professional
competence in low carbon design in a similar way that the Construction Industry
Training Board and the sector skills councils support the installation end of the
construction industry.
Attitudes to skills and training
The annual Construction Industry Training Board report “Skills and Training in
the Construction Sector” provides some useful background to the changes in
reporting the skills gap as a result of recession.
One of the most striking results of the 2011 survey was that very few
employers would state that any of their employees had skills gaps, in contrast
to previous years, where approximately 10% of employers reported that at least
one member of staff was not totally proficient in all aspects of their job. The
report’s authors suggest that perhaps this change is influenced by employers’
unwillingness to admit to having staff that are not fully proficient, especially
at a time where jobs are relatively scarce, and plenty of skilled workers are
seeking employment.
It is also suggested that this may be explained by a combination of downsizing
and the slow construction market at present making any skills gaps less visible,
as the 2011 survey also showed a dramatic reduction in recruitment compared
to 2009. Only 26% of employers had attempted to recruit skilled labour in the
previous 12 months compared with 36% in the 2009 survey.
The 2009 survey found that 52% of employers across the whole construction
industry (rising to 71% of those firms employing more 25 or more staff )
considered that new legislation and regulations would impact on their future
skills needs. It is likely that the drive towards low carbon construction with
its high turnover of guidance, strategies, policy and new regulation will have
featured highly in forming this response. By the beginning of 2011 however,
those proportions had fallen to 45% and 54% respectively, despite the fact that
the rate of introduction of new legislation is now increasing.
In relation to the introduction of new technology or equipment; 32% of
contractors (39% in 2009) and 44% of professional services firms (50% in 2009)
forecast an impact on their future skills needs. Although fewer respondents
foresaw the need for increasing skills in the 2011 survey, it is still significant
that this represents more than one third of the industry, rising to nearly half of
professional services firms. Again, the need to innovate, adopt new working
practices and integrate new technologies to achieve a low carbon outcome is
likely to have been influential in the thinking of respondents to this survey.
Examining the professional services firms, where the majority of graduate
employment is likely to occur, the 2011 survey found that the need to acquire
new skills within the next year is highest amongst architectural firms (72%) and
building services engineers (60%). Amongst the more traditional engineering
roles only 40% of civil engineers and mechanical engineers reported the need
to acquire new skills within the next 12 months. This would appear to bear
out the perceived shift in demand for engineering skills away the traditional
disciplines into those associated with low carbon construction.
26 The Royal Academy of Engineering