Tackling the UK’s skills gap
Leading industry players have come together to launch Trade-Up, the UK’s first private sector response to the chronic skills shortage in the home repairs and construction sectors.
Research from Capital Economics shows that increased demand for construction, home repairs and improvements and decarbonisation expertise means the industry needs an influx of one million new workers by 2030 – a 57 per cent increase to the current rate of new joiners – including 142,000 new electricians, 98,000 carpenters, and 80,000 plumbers.
To tackle this chronic shortage, Trade-Up unites seven industry players, including five of Britain’s leading training providers and trusted industry partners Checkatrade and Certsure.
Together the partnership will accelerate efforts to transform the careers of thousands of mature workers – from armed forces veterans, disenchanted office, hospitality and retail workers, and aspiring entrepreneurs.
Trade-Up will make it easier for would-be career changers to find relevant training programmes via a centralised website www.trade-up.co.uk
The initiative also aims to: help simplify access to funding over time for both training providers and students, striving to make financing adult retraining as easy as a student loan; support newly qualified trades into work by match-making trainees with businesses, helping budding entrepreneurs start up as self-employed tradespeople and turning one person businesses into SMEs and raise the external attractiveness of becoming a Trade and promote the quality and variety of training programmes available.
Richard Harpin, founder and chief executive of Walsall-based HomeServe, and chairman of Trade-Up, said: “As the Chancellor pointed out in his fiscal statement, there are 630,000 economically inactive working age adults in Britain. More must be done to address this enormous headwind to productivity and growth, particularly in the construction sector where the skills gap is dire.
"We need to get serious about skills. Retraining is our greatest opportunity to create the workforce we need today. And yet no Government has managed to address this problem credibly.
Trade-Up today sets out an ambitious, industry-led response to this issue. With one common goal, and a platform to achieve it, Trade-Up will drive a step-change in our ability to create jobs and fill the critical skills gap we face.”
