Apprenticeships…the buzzword for the upcoming election, but are we still missing a trick?

The last few weeks have seen the battle lines drawn for the forthcoming election, with the political heavyweights being wheeled out at various economic hotspots across the country.

Skills, or rather the lack of them, appear to be high on the agenda of all parties and in particular Apprenticeships, with Milliband going a step further by announcing that all school leavers will be guaranteed an apprenticeship by 2020.

In general, this is music to my ears and I think we’re all on the same page in wanting our young people to get vocational experience and qualifications to help make them more ready for work.

However, there is a big ‘but’. I run a business involved in demolition and there is very little provision or courses for demolition engineering apprenticeships and, believe me, our industry is crying out for young blood.

Yes there are operative apprenticeships and both the National Demolition Training Group (NDTG) and CSkills are pushing those hard, but these are more for individuals wishing to enter the sector as a labourer or plant operator.

Both good career moves, but what about those who aspire to become demolition engineers and want to study demolition engineering? Where can they go to get the knowledge? The answer is…nowhere!

Currently, no UK College or University offers this type of course and the Government seems unwilling to provide firms with grants or any type of funding. It appears our industry is not sexy enough to get them the column inches or sway the swing voters.

I estimate we need around 350 labourers, 70 topmen (responsible for preparing a site for demolition), 50 supervisors, 40 managers and at least 50 engineers. That’s 500 new jobs and we probably haven’t even scratched the surface.

At C&D, we have recently taken on an ‘apprentice’ in Matty Bardgett, who is working on complex demolition projects from our office in Liverpool. His education will not be from a college course, but will be through our own courses, mentoring from our professionals and on the job training.

Closer to home, we have also taken on Matt Birch, who came to us for work experience following an ‘Inspiring the Future’ talk I gave at his school. Despite our best efforts, we have not been able to find him a local provider to help with his development.

If he was interested in civil engineering, hairdressing or media studies – all interesting careers in their own right – we’d have tens to choose from.

Demolition is a very skilled industry and a fantastic career, so my message to the political parties would be…’don’t forget the non-mainstream sectors’.

We need the same education and training provision as automotive, aerospace, retail or professional services, especially if you don’t want troublesome buildings or structures preventing future infrastructure projects.

Educate and we will thrive.