Construction apprenticeships at 'crisis point'
23/05/2008(17:04)
The construction industry is facing catastrophe due to a lack of training opportunities and apprenticeships, a spokesperson for the Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians (UCATT) has claimed.
According to the organisation, despite government estimates that the construction industry needs to train 650,000 workers by 2014, last year only 7,000 places for apprentices were found - although 50,000 young people applied for places.
Earlier this week, UCATT warned John Denham, the secretary of state for skills, that his plans to ask construction employers to voluntarily increase training and to set funding aside for apprentice schemes are likely to be unsuccessful.
"Training and apprenticeships in construction are at crisis point, the whole system is not working," a spokesperson for the union said.
Currently neither women nor ethnic minorities are proportionally represented in the construction industry but "the system is in such crisis that it is very difficult to start changing that at the moment," the spokesperson added.
According to a report by the Trades Union Congress, while more apprenticeships have opened up for women, the trend has not occurred in better paid male-dominated sectors such as engineering and construction where women make up 2.5 per cent and 1.3 per cent of apprentices respectively.
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