UK construction takes skills pledge

Construction companies met ministers yesterday to sign up for the Government’s Skills Pledge.

Costain, ConstructionSkills, Beard, Partners in Construction, Hanson, and the Engineering Construction Industry Training Board, will join more than 150 employers from across England to make a public Skills Pledge to train all their staff. More than 1.7 million private and public sector employees will be covered by a Skills Pledge.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown was among ministers at the event.

The employers will make a public and voluntary commitment to support all their employees to develop basic skills, including numeracy and literacy, and work towards relevant qualifications to at least Level 2 (the equivalent of five GCSEs at A to C grade).

Employers that make a commitment to the Skills Pledge will have access to a Skills Broker, part of the Learning and Skills Council’s Train to Gain service, through whom they can access free literacy and numeracy and first full Level 2 qualification courses. The Skills Broker can assess the company’s training needs and help the employer produce an action plan that will set out contributions from the state, the employer and the individual.

The key facts are:

• 157 organisations have signed the skills pledge so far.
• Any employer can sign the pledge, no matter the size or sector of business.
• It is not yet a legal requirement to sign up.
• Employers decide how and when they report progress on the pledge.
• Employers will use government funds from the Train to Gain budget to pay for the costs of training staff in basic literacy and numeracy skills, to achieve Level 2 qualifications.
• The annual Train to Gain budget stands at £400m for 2007-08, rising to £650m in 2008-09.