ECA warmly welcomes today’s publication of the Construction Leadership Council’s Skills Plan 2021-2025.

ECA has been a key contributor to the Plan, through its involvement with the CLC People and Skills Network. The Plan sets out the significant skills, employment and competence challenges faced by the construction and built environment sector and how each will be tackled. It is backed by industry and government.

Good practice examples from the electrotechnical and engineering services sector feature widely in the Plan. These include ECA’s own Loan Labour Scheme and the Experienced Worker Assessment, which has so far helped over 3,000 individuals secure fully qualified electrician status.  The Plan also recognises the vital role of the Electrotechnical Skills Partnership (TESP) in strengthening industry qualification routes, improving links between employers and education and boosting digital and green skills.

Encouraged by ECA, the Skills Plan addresses the underlying preconditions necessary to secure an effective and sustainable skills system. Notably, the Plan reiterates CLC backing for industry-led implementation of the competence recommendations made by Dame Judith Hackitt and the ‘Setting the Bar’ report.

Just one month after a JIB report highlighted the multiple benefits of direct employment, the Plan also sets out specific initiatives to deliver the CLC’s previously stated objective to increase direct employment levels.

Commenting on the Skills Plan, Andrew Eldred, ECA’s Director of Skills and Employment and a member of the CLC People and Skills Network, said: “This Skills Plan signifies a marked change of gear. It seeks to tackle not only the industry’s immediate skills and training issues, but also the root causes of the UK’s historical under-performance. Just as our current problems are inter-related, so too are the solutions.

“A virtuous circle is potentially within our grasp, incorporating stronger competence and employment standards, increased employer engagement with education, and improved innovation, quality and safety.”