The
Blog section of the website has, for a while, become like the
forgotten poor relation, we have spent so much of our time and energy
talking and thinking about the impact of the “B” word! It has
consumed not only our energies but most of the UK's as well and has
become a two year Hokey Cokey! Are we near to the end of the dance
yet?
The
construction professions in the private and public sectors which
design, develop and build the infrastructure for the country are
trying to plan for the future whatever that might become. The
construction sector has lost capacity and capability since the
financial crash of 2008, irrespective of what level of funding is or
may be available going forward for future projects, the UK needs to
facilitate the training of people to fill the growing skill gaps
within the construction and infrastructure sector. In many sectors of
our market, the magnitude and scale of the loss of skills and
experience is becoming critical, maybe to a point where many will not
be able to be re-established as the ageing workforce is not able or
being given the opportunity to pass on their trade or profession to
apprentices. The fabric of the built and social environment depends
on being viable and functional.
Industry
needs to be helped to train much needed apprentices and technicians
as school leavers are being unnecessarily encouraged by current
trends to go to University, where at the end of their studies, many
will have created themselves significant personal debt and probably
will have little prospect of finding suitable or rewarding employment
which will enable them to repay these debts. The current trend
appears to be that many of these personal debts will become written
off over time by the tax payer. A better and more realistically
socially engineered government policy could easily limit and avoid
this mounting problem.
Our
private, business and national financial models need to be changed
from growth based systems to sustainable ones. Planet Earth and
humanity cannot continue to be be lead by short term financial gains,
a new Era in our evolution needs to be “Born” and not just spoken
about. Little has been achieved by Earth Summits over the last thirty
years!
