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Training & Personal Development

All the skills required in the modern workplace – and how to get them

87,600 reasons why your country needs you!

(Picture: Access Training Logo)

From teenagers leaving school to high-ranking military personnel looking to become skilled tradespeople, Ian Bennett has seen them all pass through the doors of Access Training Wales. Paul MacKenzie-Cummins tracked him down to find out more.

The UK is expected to undergo a building frenzy over the next fi ve years, adding an increasing strain on the current availability of skilled labour, according to industry forecasts.

The Government will be spending over £76bn on new homes, schools and hospitals in addition to the new transport links and projects already earmarked for the London Olympics in 2012. And, last week, the soon-to-be Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced ambitious plans to build 5 new eco-towns.

But, the UK has a serious lack of trained labour to meet the demand and this shortage has attracted migrant workers from countries such Poland and Ukraine to fill the gaps.

Demand for labour is set to intensify and the shortfall is alarming. At the time of writing this, 29,000 plumbers are urgently needed to keep up with current demand let alone the extra demand created over the next few years.

And, across the board, an estimated 87,600 tradespeople - plumbers, plasterers, painters, decorators and others – are needed, every year for the foreseeable future.

“The building industry is expanding by 17 per cent a year and is the biggest industry in the UK by far”, Access Training’s operations manager Ian Bennett explains. “For example, new homes are needed in areas such as the south-east of England, East Anglia and London.

“But, because of the lack of locally based labour, workers from Wales are travelling to work on these sites and coming home at weekends. This is creating a huge skills shortage of labour here in Wales”.

Cardiff-based Access Training is one of a few companies providing training to anyone wanting to become a skilled tradesperson and is a key provider of training for ex-military personnel, Careers Wales and major housing developers.

Since 2003, the organisation has provided training for thousands of people of all ages and from all walks of life and equipped them with the necessary skills and knowledge to successfully start their new careers or set up their own businesses.

Traditionally, if you wanted to learn a new trade, you attended a college. But, some courses take as long as two or three years to complete and this led many people to drop out before they became qualified. This is where Access Training is different.

Says Bennett. “And you can divide up your training and attend when it suits you”.

Access Training offers exactly the same qualifications as a college including NVQs, City & Guilds and National Open College accreditations. And, trainees that graduate from one of Access Training’s courses can command a good wage and even earn more than the national average.

And, with the increasingly technical nature within each trade, the industry is becoming more and more regulated.

(Picture: Man in a checked shirt and hardhat holding a spanner installing a sink)

(Picture: Man in a denim shirt and hardhat measuring the timber frame of a house)