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Project Five Consulting have conducted a market survey involving 100 respondents about leadership and management skills and training in the engineering and construction sector, carried out in November 2018.
It has been clear for a long time that the UK construction industry is facing a massive skills challenge. The loss of well over 100,000 jobs after the last recession, an ageing workforce and a lack of new entrants to the industry has led to skills shortages and skills gaps. The issue applies equally to professional and trade-based roles across the industry. With the additional headwind of Brexit on the immediate horizon, it presents the industry with a huge challenge, particularly considering the £600 billion UK infrastructure pipeline.
The loss of well over 100,000 jobs after the last recession, an ageing workforce and a lack of new entrants to the industry has led to skills shortages and skills gaps.
Professional and skilled roles are only one side of the story, however. The engineering and construction industry has long been regarded as being behind other sectors in its management capability. The UKCES report Management Matters (2013) found that the number of managers with skills gaps accounts for more than 10% of all skill gaps in the UK and that this is shown to be disproportionately larger in certain sectors including construction at 16%.
More generally, it is also widely regarded there is a shortage of leadership skills in the UK that makes us 18% less productive on average than other G7 nations; Deloitte’s UK Human Capital Trends 2015 survey, found that 85% of organisations cite leadership as one of their biggest challenges.
It is perhaps not surprising, then, that our survey found that 85% of survey respondents have no formal leadership and management qualification. Our survey respondents included project managers, engineers, quantity surveyors, operational managers, senior executives and site-based staff, where 57% indicated their career aims were to increase their level of responsibility in a leadership and management role, and 63% believing leadership and management training will improve their overall personal performance.
Not only that, but around half believe that qualification-based training in leadership and management will improve their future career progression. And with 71% saying they were either likely or very likely to join and stay with an employer that offers these opportunities, the message to employers in the sector is investing in leadership and management training pays dividends.
Higher levels of skills and qualifications, higher retention rates, becoming more attractive to new entrants and improved personal performance? It’s hard to see the downside.
At Project Five’s Academy we have developed Level 3 & 5 ILM accredited qualifications in Leadership & Management specifically for people in the engineering and construction sector. As an ILM approved centre, our courses lead to internationally recognised management training qualifications based on real organisational application and improvement.
For more details about our accredited courses visit projectfive.academy.
