Griff Thomas, managing director for GTEC & Heatly, both part of the United Living Group has commented on the government’s Apprenticeship Levy reform announcement and Skills England report.
Griff said: “Skills England’s first report makes for exciting reading for anyone in the building services sector. The report highlights that the transition to net zero will affect around one in five UK jobs, with a specific shift from those currently working in ‘carbon intensive’ industries – plumbing and heating engineers are a prime example.
“The need for skilled workers in ‘green’ jobs is centre stage, with a new ‘Office for Clean Energy Jobs’ set-up to focus on ensuring we have the workforce ready to deliver net zero targets.
“Training is required from the bottom-up, as outlined in apprenticeship reforms also released yesterday, which will hopefully provide more flexibility to both learners and employers, with shorter apprenticeship programmes identified as one of the areas being introduced. As the Skills England report highlights, employee investment in training has been in steady decline over the last decade so it’s clear that greater incentives are needed to change this situation. I hope this ‘flexibility’ extends to all types of training.
“At GTEC, we are ready to support the government in these ambitions, with our existing renewable upskill qualifications and the many new courses in development – for building services and associated sectors. The creation of updated qualifications to meet energy efficiency retrofit targets, for example, was mentioned as a specific need within the construction sector, something we are working on alongside our majority shareholders, United Living Group.
“I look forward to seeing Skills England’s plans come to fruition and the benefits to our economy, vocational training systems and net zero ambitions that these hopefully will bring.”