The scalability and resources of group efforts can unlock modernization skills and training

Derek Horrocks is Chair of the National Home Decarbonisation Group, the National Insulation Association and turnkey solutions provider Sustainable Building Services.

The industry is well aware of the reputational change that needs to happen to attract new people. In part, we need to show what can be achieved, such as how home reform and decarbonisation literally transforms lives, and the solution providers we are. Through this work we are directly helping people with the biggest crises of our time, including the cost of living and energy crises, helping to reduce pressure on the health service with better living standards by improving health and welfare

“We can make construction the most attractive employment option of all, but to ensure these people we need to provide clear pathways to the qualifications of the future”

Skills and training, however, remain the biggest barrier to break. This means we can make construction the most attractive career choice of all, but to ensure people come we need to offer the courses and clear pathways to the qualifications of the future.

Fortunately, as long as they adhere to national occupational criteria, we are well placed to develop and shape the specialist courses we need. This can be seen, for example, in the insulation industry, where there are various routes to funding and qualifications. The next step is to create clear pathways for people to access new skill sets as they train in newer fields of expertise, such as adaptation assessment or adaptation coordination, which work to close the skills gap.

Lack of low-carbon skills

Ultimately, we need another 200,000 teams competent in energy efficiency and low-carbon technologies by 2030, so it will take a collective push to achieve this – helping training providers deliver the necessary courses.

The newly launched National Home Decarbonisation Group (NHDG) has great potential, with the scale, resources, willingness and ability to invest of 20 large members of the organization representing the large proportion of projects delivered at scale in all residential tenancies. There is an opportunity to combine members’ efforts to achieve maximum performance, rather than individual efforts to achieve minimum.

Benefits of scale

It may be difficult for some providers to guarantee enrollment in specific courses in specific regions. This is an opportunity that NHDG members (prime contractors and other large companies) can unlock that smaller organizations cannot fulfill. Their ability to commit a certain number of people in their supply chains to training in certain skills provides an assurance that training providers can deliver courses, while also having the expertise to develop new courses and qualifications.

This ultimately increases the viability of the course and develops skills where they are required, which will then cascade down supply chains and have a positive social impact in communities.

Since the modernization courses we are discussing are essentially new skills, we need to train the instructors. The challenge is that people who have the right experience are in incredibly high demand to provide work and are therefore unlikely to walk away from a lucrative opportunity.

Again, the NHDG has great potential to influence change. With 20 members, a wider impact could be felt if each contributed people to be seconded to pass on their specialist knowledge to the training organizations that will deliver the courses. Of course, this experience also exists in smaller organizations, but it’s much more difficult for a 30-person team to second a team member for this task than it is for a top-level contractor.

The retrofit revolution

The power that NHDG unlocks is scalability. If every member were to adopt this approach and ensure the supply chain training commitments mentioned above, thousands of people could benefit from these actions. This can make all the difference to the retrofit revolution that needs to accelerate quickly.

It is easy for many to blame the government for slow progress in tackling the construction skills problem, but it is not as simple as funding. The government is actively involved in this area and is doing more than ever in skills and training.

If we as an industry expect the government to contribute more, we cannot sit back and wait for the money to roll in. We need to do our part, show our proactivity and what the solutions are for the unique problems they face. This is particularly relevant for training courses, because it is industry that holds the key to knowledge.

Opportunity is everywhere. The industry just needs to open its eyes and work together to achieve this, while holding ourselves accountable together to achieve shared goals.