ACE – Apprenticeship Certificates England
The ACE online system is the place where apprentices, or third parties acting on their behalf, apply for their Apprenticeship certificates.
The so-called sharing economy was named by TIME magazine as one of ’10 Ideas that will change the world’[1] in 2011. Four years later, the construction industry appears to have taken little heed of this assertion, though, the logic of the sharing economy may be breaking through.
The big question posed by the sharing economy is: why own a chainsaw when you only chop down trees two days a year, why not loan it out to others while you do not need it? Indeed, the sharing economy has, in its short history, mostly been orientated towards individual consumers making the most of shared resources. Incredibly successful businesses like Uber and Airbnb have emerged as sharing economy posterboys. For the purposes of the construction industry, rather than viewing the sharing economy as a necessarily consumption-angled concept, the sector needs to expand its thinking to understand how it can be deployed to solve construction problems.
One problem that the construction industry faces is a crippling skills shortage, which will likely worsen as demand for new housing, for example, increases. Despite the prospect of renewed demand for housing[2][3], the UK is victim to a grave skills gap. Half a million of the existing 2,124,000 strong construction workforce is due to retire in the next five years and needs to be replaced (and more) as the sector grows, which calls for more apprentices. And, by 2013, ‘the number of first year trainees undertaking apprenticeship training had fallen for the fifth consecutive year to an all-time low of 3,539’.[4] In sum, the sector’s ability to replenish the shrinking construction workforce at a time of unprecedented demand is diminishing.
A significant barrier to increasing the stock of apprentices is, very simply, the lack of apprenticeships on offer in the construction sector. Indeed, just one in four construction firms reported having taken on an apprentice in 2014, despite 75% finding themselves either satisfied or very satisfied with the schemes[5].
A key question, then, is how to encourage employers to take on more apprentices. Perhaps the logic of the sharing economy that provides some of the answer; although the apprenticeship system can be traced back to the Middle Ages, there might be a way of reinvigorating the construction industry with a resolutely modern take on this most ancient method of training.
The CITB (Construction Industry Training Board) has stepped up. It launched a pilot programme called the ‘Shared Apprenticeship Scheme’[6] which allows young people to complete a full apprenticeship by working with a number of different employers. The scheme allows employers to take on an apprentice for a minimum of three months before allowing the apprentice to move on to another firm to learn more. It gives the apprentices a wealth of varied experience and a series of contacts to pursue for a full time job once they complete their training while also insulating the employer from higher costs associated with taking on an apprentice for a year, therefore lowering risk. The real beauty of the scheme is that it does not rely on incentivising apprentices by paying them more, just sharing of excess capacity of apprentices’ services between companies – a key tenant of the sharing economy. The model works because it is sympathetic to both employers and young employees. Why have an apprentice for a full year when you only need him/her for three months, why not loan them out for another firm to train them when you do not need them?
The CITB pilots have proved successful, reinforcing the construction industry with an extra 500 apprentices per annum. A real effort, however, must be made to roll out the programme on a wider scale. The industry has to work hard to find ways to make apprenticeships more flexible and engaging for the apprentices involved. The sector should consider administering this kind of scheme among themselves rather than relying on Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs) such as CITB to do the work for them, which would enable them to more specifically tailor the apprentice’s training to their needs.
Although the sharing economy is often perceived as unrealistic or cerebral, its rationale can be applied to the resolutely tangible world of the construction industry and if it means a higher capacity for infrastructure, society as a whole will surely be sharing in the benefits. Whether it’s swapping apprentices or chainsaws, a sharing economy inspired approach might well be the future of training in the construction industry… and chopping down trees.
[4] http://ift.tt/1URrpPI (p 15)
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