Posted 11 September 2024

Leeds College of Building was established in 1960 with a unique focus on providing high-quality education and training for the construction and built environment sector. Over the years, higher-level skills and degree apprenticeships have become a priority in industry and, by association, at our College.

We now teach approximately 5,000 students annually, almost 3,000 of whom are apprentices (including degree apprentices across five Apprenticeship Standards). We work with over 800 organisations, and thanks to our national reputation for excellence, apprentices from Cornwall to Newcastle attend our Leeds campuses. However, meeting industry needs is increasingly challenging in an underfunded Further Education (FE) sector.

We work hard to support construction employers’ skills needs, which became even more vital after Labour’s pledge to meet national housebuilding targets. Retrofitting existing homes is crucial to achieve Net Zero, and it is no exaggeration to say housebuilding needs to increase at a pace and scale not seen since the Second World War.

That being said, we face a difficult time. Experts have warned about the potential of an enormous skills shortage within the UK construction sector for over a decade. We urgently need technical professionals on a scale never seen before, yet we see bottlenecks in a system when we need it to be as free-flowing as possible.

We can only achieve housebuilding and Net Zero targets with a skilled workforce, and that workforce needs to encompass adults with graduate and post-graduate level construction qualifications. We must ensure everyone is given the opportunity to attain sustainable and productive jobs, and degree apprenticeships are among the best ways to create a skilled workforce. Yet, the barriers to growing this provision are significant.

Labour also pledged to recruit 6,500 new expert teachers for schools and colleges. Although very welcome, this ambition raises another concern. Teaching salaries in FE do not come close to average earnings in the private construction sector. Without the necessary funding for competitive remuneration, colleges will continue to struggle with recruiting and retaining enough qualified and specialist Higher Education (HE) teaching staff.

Staff pay was an issue further compounded when FE colleges were once again snubbed in public sector pay award announcements in July. However, although finances are restrictive, I am confident there are ways to remove the blocks faced by employers and providers to attract more staff qualified to teach HE qualifications.

My team and I will continue to lobby our MPs and policymakers about this issue, especially in advance of the Autumn budget scheduled for 30 October. I hope that the experience and expertise of our College, employers, and students can be used to inform and address these critical issues soon.

 

Nikki Davis, Principal and CEO, Leeds College of Building