Housing, Construction & Infrastructure (HCI) Skills Gateway commissioned the Circular Edinburgh team from Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce to work with industry partners to discover what support would most benefit the sector as Scotland transitions to net zero. Launched in 2019, HCI Skills Gateway is a 拢6m investment from the Edinburgh & South East Scotland City Region Deal, tasked with building inclusive and sustainable construction careers for all across the region.
Over 150 companies were contacted over a four-month period to assess their current activities in additional training, how they are building green skills within their workforce and how they are working to identify competency gaps.
As a result of the study, HCI has committed to delivering five key actions:
- increase access to retrofit training, starting with free courses for the region鈥檚 housing professionals delivered via the Built Environment 鈥� Smarter Transformation BE-ST, formerly Construction Scotland Innovation Centre;
- deliver courses in new building techniques and emerging technologies across the region鈥檚 further education colleges;
- map current sustainability accreditations and identify gaps and new training required;
- translate offsetting and audit academic research into practical carbon accounting tools relevant to industry in South East Scotland;
- inspire more young people into sustainable construction careers by funding partnerships like Daydream Believers and the Edinburgh Science Festival.
Dr Kenneth Leitch, head of civil, transportation and environmental engineering at Edinburgh Napier University and project lead at HCI Skills Gateway, said: 鈥淭he idea of 鈥榞reen jobs鈥� in construction is a misnomer 鈥� everyone who works or enters work in housing, construction and infrastructure needs to be skilled in decarbonising our built environment, whatever their role.
鈥淚t is expected that the Scottish construction industry will need 22,500 new roles by 2028. These will be a mix of new skilled jobs, increased efficiencies in existing roles, and roles focussing on decarbonisation innovation.
鈥淗CI is currently funded until 2025, and so we intend to put our five priority actions into motion in the next three years. This will ensure we are providing access to the skills and training needed to fill these new roles, and for on-the-ground delivery across the region to help our nation achieve its net zero ambitions.鈥�
Mayan Grace, director of projects at Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce said: 鈥淲orking on this project provided an opportunity to engage with businesses on one of the most pressing issues we face today, and gather their first-hand experiences on the skills gap around sustainability within the sector. We found the overwhelming theme was that more training is essential to equip the workforce with the skills they need.
鈥淲e were encouraged by business and the education sector鈥檚 ongoing willingness to work in collaboration, but to achieve this we need to ensure that it led by a joined-up approach. Only through strong partnerships between academia and business can we produce successful outcomes which allow us to achieve a sustainable future for the sector.鈥�
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