B&ES PRESIDENT CALLS FOR TRAINING TO EMBRACE THE ENTIRE CONSTRUCTION SUPPLY CHAIN
Building engineering training programmes must be broad-based so that apprentices and students acquire not just the skills and competences of this sector alone but fully understand the operation of the entire construction supply chain, and essential if the UK construction industry is to achieve and maintain genuinely world-class status. This was the key message from Andy Sneyd, president of the Building & Engineering Services Association, speaking at the annual B&ES President’s Luncheon.
11 September 2014 – Building engineering training programmes must be broad-based so that apprentices and students acquire not just the skills and competences of this sector alone but fully understand the operation of the entire construction supply chain, and essential if the UK construction industry is to achieve and maintain genuinely world-class status. This was the key message from Andy Sneyd, president of the Building & Engineering Services Association, speaking at the annual B&ES President’s Luncheon.
“For this ambition to have any chance of fulfilment, we must recruit into our businesses the brightest and best of today’s young talent.
“And we must educate them – not only in the skills and competences required within our own discipline, but also in the overall construction process,” Mr Sneyd told his audience.
The industry must invest in education, training and development programmes that are “truly broadly-based” and “fit-for-purpose”.
“That way, we will build a workforce that will ensure the future success of our own organisations.
“We will also spread the word that the construction industry can offer a stimulating working environment, profound job satisfaction and the opportunity to think and act innovatively and creatively.”
The president pointed out that, in its recently published industrial strategy, Government had acknowledged the central role construction plays in the prosperity of the nation.
“Our industry is a key enabler of our economic recovery – as well as being critical to the achievement of national and international climate change targets in the years and decades to come.
“In other words, construction is important – and how it is led, organised and managed is crucial to every man, woman and child in the country.”
B&ES members had long prided themselves on their competence and professionalism – but there is a great deal more to the design, construction and commissioning of modern buildings than simply the technological aspects.
“Absolutely key to our ability to address today’s challenges is the existence of a well-trained, well-managed and well-motivated team, at every level of the workforce,” Mr Sneyd concluded.
The B&ES President’s Luncheon 2014 was held at the Skyloft, Millbank Tower, London SW1, on Thursday 4 September and attended by senior representatives from across the construction industry, MPs, senior civil servants, B&ES members and executive staff.
For more information about B&ES visit: http://www.b-es.org.
Ends
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Note to Editors
Since its formation in 1904, B&ES, the Building & Engineering Services Association (formerly the HVCA) has represented the interests of companies engaged in a wide range of building and engineering services disciplines.
B&ES helps its members to build successful businesses by being the leading trade association for integrated building and engineering services and renewable technologies. It is a unifying force that promotes and monitors excellence; provides quality advice, guidance, training and support; generates market-leading thinking; and shapes the commercial environment through active representation.
B&ES members are subject to regular, third-party inspection and assessment of their technical competence and commercial capability, carried out by an independent certification body at least every three years.
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