The Brief
The government’s focus on infrastructure investment as part of its ‘levelling up’ agenda and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the national economy highlights the importance of the construction sector. The WMCA and Department for Education (DfE) funded the Construction Gateway, a 3-year construction skills project to provide classroom training and work experience to residents in the combined authority region. This was delivered in partnerships with FE colleges, private training providers, and local Tier 1 employers. It seeks to address the skills gap and provide a better match between the region’s workforce and current and future business needs.
Recognising the skills and experience that the supply chain requires onsite – the training fulfils the needs of the Tier 1 employers in the supply chain. Students obtain a Construction Skills Certificate Scheme (CSCS) on completion and have an interview with their employer partner. The WMCA’s Construction Gateway project, uses a “bootcamp” approach to deliver employer-led training provision, short courses, and employment outcomes, rather than traditional course attainment and qualifications. WMCA approached Winning Moves to evaluate how the Construction Gateway project aligns with their wider strategic and policy agendas, how educators have implemented the training in various forms and to assess the effectiveness of the Construction Gateway model and its impact on delivery partners.
The Solution
Winning Moves used a mixed methods approach to gain a depth of understanding. Using online surveys, interviews, in-depth case studies, and desk reviews, we engaged with employers, students, stakeholders, and educators. Interviews were carried out with project managers, training providers and local employers. In addition to completed online surveys from students, the desk review took in local and regional strategy documents to review project performance against financial outcomes and impacts. Three in-depth case studies, with Dudley College, RMF and Total Training were carried out to triangulate information from stakeholders and students.
The Outcome
It was determined that the Construction Gateway was successful in offering flexibility to colleges and private training providers to respond rapidly to employers’ specific skills requirements. We found that the outcomes of the program included positive employment outcomes for 60% of survey respondents, and 483 students were employed in the construction sector as a direct result of the Construction Gateway project.
The focus on harder-to-reach groups, including the long-term unemployed, ethnic minorities, ex-offenders, and people with physical disabilities was found to be successful in reaching people not usually reached by the construction sector. Employers’ perceptions of people from ‘harder to reach’ communities were found to have changed significantly as a result of seeing these learners working on-site, with many stating their interest in recruiting them following their training.
Students benefited from practical, on-site experience, exposing them to the realities of working in construction, helping them to decide if the sector is for them. Indeed, 85% of respondents stated that Construction Gateway has helped them to decide to take up a career in construction.
Construction Gateway involved 13 training providers, seven of these successfully placed 50% of their students into employment, with five achieving WMCS’s stretch target of 70% of students placed in employment. We determined that the Construction Gateway helped to fill employment opportunities in the region, addressed the aging workforce in the sector, and encouraged people from different socio-economic backgrounds, particularly women, to consider construction as a career.