Bricklayers’ boom highlights ‘skills timebomb’ in UK construction industry

At the end of year assembly, Ashley Terron’s teacher pulled him to one side in a last-ditch attempt to persuade him to stay on to do A-levels.

Terron was a good pupil and his school saw a path to university ahead. The 16-year-old, however, had other ideas. Like his great-grandfather, father and older brother, he wanted to become a bricklayer.

Now 22, he is officially the best young bricklayer in the world, having taken home a gold medal for the UK at last year’s WorldSkills competition. Ask most British builders about the country’s bricklaying excellence though, and they will probably tell you good tradespeople are as rare as their expertise.

The latest figures showing rising employment and falling benefit claims in the UK also shed more light on what construction industry insiders have described as a “skills timebomb”. The official data showed the number of bricklayers claiming job seeker’s allowance had dropped to its lowest level in at least a decade, down sharply to 1,775 in August from a peak of 15,425 in March 2009. They also showed construction wages up an annual 4% in July. That makes it one of the strongest performing sectors for pay growth, while in the wider economy wages are failing to match inflation.

The numbers reflect the rise in work for an industry that shed many skilled workers during the savage recession. The economic crisis hit builders particularly hard as projects were cancelled and new work dried up. The sector lost almost 400,000 people and another 400,000 are due to retire over the next five years, according to the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB). Now, as builders take on new work, the shortage of skilled tradespeople has allowed bricklayers and other subcontractors to ramp up their hourly rates.

“There is good money for bricklaying out there to be earned,” says Terron. “It’s certainly one of the best times to get into it. The numbers are so low. It’s three years of training and not great money, but after that it’s a good career.”

Terron started out as an apprentice with his father, got into skills competitions and was picked out to represent the UK. He trained for more than two years for the WorldSkills contest in Leipzig, where he competed with bricklayers from 25 countries to build three complex models in 22 hours.

Industry insiders hope interest in such competitions will help draw more young people into construction, and cut youth unemployment at the same time.

“People need to see training is available,” says Ross Maloney, the chief executive of Find a Future, which runs the annual Skills Show event in Birmingham and manages the WorldSkills UK competitions.

He believes giving young people a chance to try skilled jobs, whether it be as a confectioner or carpenter, fills a need not addressed in many schools. “We make sure there is a career path they can see,” he says. “We are saying let’s stop this conversation about qualifications and talk about jobs and careers.”

As part of that push for vocational training to gain the same attention as university degrees, the shows also run events for teachers and parents.

The latest figures suggest that there is plenty more work to do. The number of apprenticeship starts in construction fell for the last full year for which numbers are available, down to 13,730 in 2012/2013 from 13,920 in 2011/12.

Demand is only part of the problem. Research for the examiner City & Guilds conducted last November found that more than 50% of construction businesses in the UK had no plans to take on apprentices over the coming year. Two-fifths did not employ any apprentices and 61% had not offered any unpaid work experience in the past 12 months.

Steve Radley, the CITB’s policy director, says employers need to capitalise on the upturn and help drive up the number of skilled workers.

“There’s a serious and developing skills shortage, and industry has come out of one of the most serious downturns it has seen for a century,” he says.

“The swing from bust to boom has been stronger than elsewhere, and industry has not traditionally planned ahead well.”

Radley is optimistic, however, that planning weakness could change. “We do feel like we have got a lot more visibility about infrastructure projects such as Crossrail, and that allows industry to plan ahead.”

Michael Osbaldeston from City & Guilds puts some of the shortage of young people down to patchy careers advice in schools. “It’s true that lots of people are pointed down the academic route when that is not necessarily appropriate,” he says, noting that many people start apprenticeships in construction several years after school.

“They need to be advised or guided to these areas earlier, like at 14 or 16,” he says.

It may have to be even sooner, says David McCay, a tiling lecturer at North West Regional College in Northern Ireland.

McCay, who volunteers with the UK squad for skills competitions, sees a big opportunity for construction companies to attract primary school pupils, who always respond well to building demonstrations.

“If you ask a primary school child: ‘Who wants a go?’ – you have 20 hands go up. If you go into secondary schools they are too cool and have inhibitions,” he says.

His college has no trainee bricklayers among new students this new academic year. “There is no interest in the young people in bricklaying because of parents’ attitudes to the construction industry,” McCay says.

“Schools focus on maths and literacy and that’s hugely important … but they have put vocational paths to one side. Schools need to be more understanding of the trades.”

Terron agrees that schools need to understand the variety of routes into work. He has gone on to an assistant site management job at the housebuilder Redrow and is studying for a degree in construction project management, so when it comes to his own school he feels vindicated.

The newly crowned world champion got in touch with his old teacher. “I still remembered him and I had to get this off my chest … He said he felt an enormous sense of pride – and he apologised,” he says.