For Green Construction, the Future is Now

For Green Construction, the Future is Now

With 26 million homes across the UK’s existing housing stock that don’t meet current energy efficiency requirements, and approximately 460,000 new roles needed within the construction sector, we are now moving forward with our innovative ‘Green Construction’ plan. It equips us to deliver sustainable building training, at scale, to employers and tradesman in the sector through a broad range of newly developed short courses.

New Skills Factory and Home Energy Centre Facilities

Richard Wilde, who led the Local Skills Improvement Fund (LSIF) bid, says the funding will enable them to lead the way, meeting demand for the skills to meet the UK’s commitment to Net Zero 2050.

He says: “We already have facilities that we built from the ground upwards that we furnished with training assets for things like air source and ground source heat pumps, and renewable energy solutions, located in the Skills Factory and Home Energy Centre at the Maidstone Campus that we created from the previous funding.

A complete portfolio of training facilities and curriculum to cover all aspects of sustainability awareness right through to retrofit installations.

‘Though those facilities are great for raising awareness around renewable energy solutions and increasing the knowledge that people require to carry out those tasks, what we couldn’t do was develop practical competencies for people like the installers, operatives, and retrofit assessors.

‘The LSIF fund allows us to now expand those facilities with a new building where we can actually deliver those practical competencies. We will have a complete portfolio of training facilities and curriculum to cover all aspects of sustainability awareness right through to retrofit installations.

The 2050 Challenge: Finding the Workforce

The overall challenge of Net Zero 2050 is not going to move. We must reach those targets by 2050 and the more we delay, the greater the challenge becomes. One of the biggest challenges is finding the workforce. We want to be proactive in training that workforce.’

The more we delay, the greater the challenge becomes.

Richard Wilde says the ideal – but impossible - solution for the 26 million homes that don’t meet current energy efficiency requirements would be to flatten them and rebuild new ones. In construction, the practical answer is to retrofit the existing homes, and that’s where nearly half a million new jobs will be created.

The practical answer is to retrofit the existing homes.

‘It’s not all going to be new people coming into that sector. 460, 000 new roles is obviously quite a hole to fill. It might be somebody who’s reskilling or upskilling to fit into one of those roles.

The Drivers for Change

We are preparing for the drivers for change – which could be regulatory or in the form of grants and opportunities.

Richard says: ‘Once those drivers are in place, we’ll get some momentum to start upgrading houses. That’s things like eliminating damp and poor ventilation and wasting energy through leaky walls, roofs, and floors. A cold house is not a healthy house. The first move is probably going to be made with local authorities and housing associations upgrading their housing stock.

A cold house is not a healthy house.

‘Where’s the workforce going to come from to be able to do that? If there’s reskilling, upskilling, that’s going to be required or assessment of competencies before people can go out and carry out these installations, then we have the facilities and the resources in place to help.

Develop Competencies: Upskill and Reskill

‘For example, if there is a significant amount of housing stock of solid wall construction then there may be a requirement for external wall insulation in this area. A lot of installers are going to be needed to be able to carry that out. We want to be able to develop competencies, for not only new people coming into the construction industry, but also to upskill and reskill existing people within the construction sector to be able to carry out building fabric measures.

We want to be able to develop competencies.

‘There are other roles for designers, retrofit coordinators, and managers to be able to specify the right materials and products for certain applications. Selection of the right products and systems is just as important as the installation of them.’

Mitigate Poor Retrofit with Training

Another area that green construction training will mitigate is poor retrofit. Richard Wilde says: ‘If we’re not careful, once the retrofit tasks start to roll out across the county if installers and operatives are not carrying out those retrofit tasks correctly, that’s more damaging than actually not doing any retrofit on those buildings at all. Developing the competencies to be able to carry out those retrofit tasks correctly is essential to what we’re trying to achieve along this path to Net Zero.’

What's Important Now?

What’s important now is for us all to have the conversation as to what’s needed and we’re ready to support employers and tradespeople to shape their future workforce and provide the necessary skills.

Learn more about our green construction courses.