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Contractors' body announces £10m fund

08/04/2008

ECA president, Bob Hall, chose the occasion of the Association's annual dinner to announce a £10 million fund to support increased training by its members.

Hall, who described training as his 'main mission' during his term in office, said the industry is 'sleepwalking' into a major crisis, the full extent of which will not be realised until the skilled labour from Eastern Europe that is currently propping up the industry returns home.

"We used to have most of the main contractors training. Now many of them, for good business reasons, have changed their business model so that they no longer directly employ craftsmen. They subcontract agencies, so they don't have the infrastructure to train.

"That leaves SMEs, who are now carrying far too much of the burden [...] There are now only 20 per cent of contractors training for 100 per cent of the industry."

The Association president went on to say that the most immediate shortages were being noticed in the lack of Project Engineers, Contract Managers and Quantity Surveyors and urged the government to "stop wasting money on six-week 'overnight electrician' college courses [...] that produce people who are of no use to the industry."

The intention is that the earnings of the training fund will be used to support training in areas where no funding is currently available, including Adult Trainees and support for higher qualifications in contract management.

Other subjects broached by Hall included the long-proposed convergence between the ECA and the HVCA, designed to bring about greater coordination and influence in the Mechanical and Electrical sector.

"One other immediate example of where we need to make sure that we are communicating effectively, as a joined up industry, is the 2012 Olympics," said Hall.

"At this moment, we have both the Employers and the Trade Unions making the case for some form of Site Working Agreement, along the lines of the Major Projects Agreement that operated on T5. Hopefully the ODA will agree with us."