A Blueprint for Change

Author: Joey Gardiner, Journalist and Editor Addressing the Skills Gap: Building a Sustainable Workforce for the Future PEOPLE

a group of influential Infrastructure clients and consultants in London’s Guildhall last month, to attempt to find solutions that will make the industry truly sustainable for the future. Over a series of roundtable debates, participants reported that sourcing good people for the industry was currently as difficult as ever. However, there was also optimism that, working together, solutions might be found to bring more people on board.

It is now nearly a decade since the government published Mark Farmer’s ‘Modernise or Die’ report into the chronic structural skills problems which bedevil the construction industry. Farmer painted an apocalyptic picture of an unreformed industry threatened by a demographic tidal wave as ageing workers retire without enough new blood to replace them. The latest statistics suggest his predictions were not wide of the mark, with sector skills shortages worse than ever. The skills issue was one of three key topics discussed as FM Conway convened

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