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"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.

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.

Creating high quality on and off-site training courses for Bricklayers, through the launch of 16 ATO delivered short duration training courses, provided by the ABC Assessment Centre.

The training courses will be written directly by bricklaying employers to target bricklayers on a nationwide scale. The areas of skill covered by the training courses have been determined by employers because of their relevancy to Modern Methods of Construction and to address the lack of skills seen from bricklayers and trainees on their sites.

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. 

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.

Building Growth South West will develop and deliver strategic promotional and pre-employment training programmes to support learners into a career in construction; bridging the gap and building pathways between third sector and community networks, training providers and employers.

Construction Youth Trust will test and develop effective pathways into construction for harder-to-reach young people and create a comprehensive best practice toolkit that will provide employers, particularly SMEs and supply-chain companies, with proven methods of engaging, recruiting and retaining two of the priority groups: 

• young people not in education, training or work (NEET) or identified by the authorities as being at significant risk of becoming NEET,
• full-time learners currently studying construction and built environment diplomas.

Through a project that will research, develop and test new and existing approaches and pathways (e.g. engagement activities, work-readiness programmes, resources, coaching frameworks, support networks), we will support employers of all sizes, with a focus on supply-chain employers, to connect with NEET young people and full-time FE learners.

As well as prioritising young people who have historically been under-represented in the industry (i.e. people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnicity (BAME) backgrounds and young women), we also want to reach young people who do not currently view employment in the construction industry favourably, and help them to realise the varied opportunities and entry routes available to them.

LBC will adopt a coordinated approach to up-scaling its existing services and extend the offering of this for a construction sector specific pathway to engage more women and long term unemployed into the Croydon construction sector.

It adopts a regional approach to extend its services and will also support construction employers to get better at recruiting from these hard to reach talent pools.

CS4L will provide a minimum of 1,500 engagement opportunities and a Pre-Employment course lasting up to 6 weeks for 150 people to enable them to become Construction Industry ready.

Furthermore, CS4L aims to ensure that a minimum of 46 outstanding ‘trainees’ from the courses secure immediate offers of employment.  

The consortium aims to ensure that a minimum of 25% of the trainees are female.

The programme will offer access to construction courses (a Level 1 Introduction to Construction and a CSCS card), functional skills support and most importantly provide a 2-week industry placement. 

This will be supported by an in-house Business Mentor, so they gain a comprehensive understanding of their chosen trades/ occupation.