Ejohwomu, O A; Proverbs, D G and Olomolaiye, P (2007) The UK construction industry: A review of black country skills demand. In: Boyd, D (ed.) Proceedings of 23rd Annual ARCOM Conference, 3-5 September 2007, Belfast, UK.
Abstract
The economic impact of the early 1990s recession on UK’s constructors (employers) is still lingering, this is because, the industry has not recovered fully from its' loss of invaluable manpower during recession. Workforce is currently overstressed, there is high claimant rate – unemployment driven, skills gap amid overall peaking of construction output. This sub-regional trend is broadly reflected at both regional and national levels. This paper is aimed at identifying the demand for construction skills, education and training in the Black Country; to identify the future and current needs of employers and explore innovative ways of addressing the issues. The views of a representative sample of agencies and companies was surveyed; the survey tool – a semi structured questionnaire was administered via face-to-face interviews. The completed questionnaires were coded and analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Workforce is aging, the expected dominance of SMEs is revealed; there is little or no training for Curtain Walling, Carpet, Hard and Soft Flooring including Tiles, Prefabrication and Cladding. 19% of contractors are concerned that they wouldn’t be able to achieve business aims because of skills shortage; sub-regional skills shortage is real and will hamper regional and national competitiveness if not seriously addressed now.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | black country; construction sector; demand; skills shortage |
| Index terms: | package, interview, recession, survey, face, questionnaire, competitiveness, economic impact, social science, cladding, construction output, education and training, construction sector, agency, prefabrication, construction industry, unemployment |
| Subjects: | sociology, building construction, professional education, market analysis, financial analysis, industry analysis, theoretical framing, operations management, building materials, psychology, economic analysis, contractual arrangements, data collection methods |
| Topics: | Project Management, Research Practice, Cost Management, Business Strategy, Procurement, Construction Technology, Design Practice, Organizational Design, Education |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here