An early start

摘要

One of the questions about the construction industry I hear asked most frequently is why it does not do more to train unemployed youngsters to fill the job vacancies that we know will arise over the next few years. The figures show the scale of the problem. The CITB estimates suggests that over 180,000 vacancies in the industry will need to be filled by 2018. Yet the number of young people in construction apprenticeships is falling. Just 7,280 completed an apprenticeship in 2013, half the number five years earlier. Inevitably, given this shortage of trained young people, the industry is once again looking abroad for recruits. This cannot be right or sensible for one of the country's largest and most important industries. So, looking for a better way forward, a group of parliamentarians chaired by Lord Richard Best and myself initiated an inquiry into improving opportunities for unemployed youngsters to find jobs in construction.