West Suffolk College: Addressing the Skills Gap in the Construction Industry
With the construction industry continuing to face the significant challenges of a growing demand for skilled workers and a shortage of labour, we spoke to West Suffolk College, part of Eastern Education Group, to find out more about how they’re tackling these challenges head-on.
Q: How have your courses evolved to respond to the current labour shortage in the construction industry? A: In the past 5 years, in our woodwork courses alone, the number of students enrolled has grown by 50% An increase that reflects the growing demand for skilled workers in the industry. We work closely with employers, adapting both our curriculum and individual courses to meet employer’s specific needs. Our courses are also aligned with local and national Labour Market Information (LMI) data to meet the needs now and moving forward for large projects like Sizewell C and challenges such as the ageing construction workforce.
Q: How does West Suffolk College collaborate with local employers to ensure your courses meet industry needs? A: We’ve got some really strong partnerships with local employers across the region, and these relationships play a key role in making sure our courses stay relevant to industry needs. A great example is our Level 2 Technical Plumbing and Level 2 Maintenance Operations programs. Our long-standing partnerships with GasWay (for plumbing) and Flagship Group (for maintenance operations), provide both real-world work experience to our students, and opportunities for apprenticeships after successful course completion. These employers also help to design our courses to better meet industry needs. For example, in plumbing, we recently added an environmental unit to the course and designed a bespoke course for our new Level 3 Heating and Ventilation crafts person Apprenticeship with a group of employers led by Munro Group.
With their industry-relevant training and close collaborations with employers, they’re helping to make sure the next generation of construction workers are ready for the job market. Lecturers Brian Tunbridge, Averil Young and David Warren took some time out to tell us more. Q: Tell us about the courses you offer and how these are helping to address the most pressing skills gaps? A: We offer a full range of construction-related courses - from carpentry, joinery, and plumbing, to construction, maintenance, heating, and ventilation. With full-time, part-time and apprenticeship options available. The courses focus on core technical skills that the industry needs, such as precision hand skills, technical proficiency, and understanding of health and safety regulations along with the softer skills needed by employers. Our brand-new Heat Pump Centre in collaboration with Valliant offers a space to upskill existing engineers along with opportunities for new apprentices to start in 2025. We also have two start dates for apprenticeships per academic year to help employers with recruitment.
We’re a seen as a trailblazer for this kind of course design.
8 | SCRUTTON BLAND | P R O P E R T Y A N D CONSTRUCTION
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