As the government announces it will fund 50,000 apprenticeships across the whole workforce, the UK is beginning to accept there’s been a problem with giving people opportunities for some time.
Any major construction project needs thousands of workers from a diverse set of backgrounds and with a multitude of skills, but recent efforts in the UK have sometimes seen both lacking.
With the government’s Infrastructure Pipeline – under the 10-year Infrastructure Strategy – signalling a desire to instil confidence, there will be lots of work to come – against the backdrop of a skills shortage. So, the UK’s biggest projects are devising ideas to help bridge that gap as the delivery of the pipeline begins.
Developed by National Highways, LTC will see the UK’s largest current road scheme delivered with a 3.4km long tunnel under the Thames Estuary, linking the A2 and M2 in Kent to the A13 and M25 in Essex.
Now the £11bn project has been given parliamentary approval to begin construction, in October it launched its first Skills Hub at a facility in Gravesend. This official launch followed a trial last year at local Kent firm Gallagher’s Maidstone quarry site.
With LTC, we’ve really put a lot of time and effort into thinking about what we want to leave behind – at the beginning of the scheme – and then thinking, what are we here to deliver?
The Skills Hub offers a dedicated space, funded by LTC, to provide free, work-based training for local people seeking jobs or new skills in the construction sector. All those that pass through the two-week bootcamp are also guaranteed job interviews at a local construction firm.
The hub is being delivered in collaboration with the Department for Work and Pensions, the Construction Industry Training Board, Kent County Council and rail and construction specialist Engage Train Support.
Lord David Blunkett, former education and employment secretary, is leading the initiative, acting as the LTC skills advisor.
Participants will have the opportunity to gain National Plant Operators Registration Scheme or Construction Plant Competence Scheme qualifications to work as plant operatives.
Other training is available for local people already in the construction workforce, including site supervision safety training, site management safety training, temporary works supervision training, management of lifting operations in construction, as well as a host of other schemes.
Further training for new entrants will focus on skills for working in the construction and building industry and NRSWA [New Roads and Street Works Act] Signing, Lighting and Guarding training course.
“Because of the size and scale of the project, we’ve got a fantastic opportunity to train lots of local people and ensure they get work in local jobs and on the project,” says LTC head of supply chain Natalie Bonnick.
“There’s a huge regional economic development piece we know is at the heart of the scheme.”
Early engagement
The idea for a new crossing traversing the Thames east of London was first tabled nearly 20 years ago as the current link between Kent and Essex, the Dartford Crossing, was and remains painfully over capacity.
Even as the project finally received acceptance of its Development Consent Order this March, National Highways and LTC had been thinking about how they would find the workforce to complete a job of this scale for some time.
“I think it’s 35,000 more people that we need in the next however many years to plug the existing gap in the pipeline of infrastructure, and that includes LTC,” Bonnick admits.
“From a pure delivery point of view, it was imperative that we invested early in local people, trained them up and then provided them with job opportunities, so that those businesses could then bid for work on LTC when it was available.”
The development timeline for LTC has seen a number of low points throughout its history, namely having to resubmit its original DCO in 2021. But while there had been uncertainty as to whether the road tunnel would ever be built, the project team was desperate for there to be an imprint from as early in its lifecycle as possible.
Bonnick goes on to explain how skills hubs operate on lots of different infrastructure projects up and down the UK and LTC’s aim is “not trying to reinvent the wheel”.
One thing she does believe occurs on many projects is that the process is often undertaken too late.
“We were investing in skills at a point in which other mega projects don’t,” Bonnick says. “We’ve got commitments in our DCO to train or upskill at least 855 people and to support early careers.
“I was involved in the DCO examination three years ago and from early on we were challenged on whether we were going far enough and whether we were delivering enough.
“That’s where the idea for the Skills Hub was born; it’s not a novel idea.”
The Gravesend Skills Hub will remain there even after LTC is finished, which is currently projected to be sometime in the early 2030s. Starting the education process early and allowing it to continue to operate after the tunnel is built is a key part of what LTC is trying to do.
“A lot of Skills Hubs can be temporary facilities where people are trained for the job, but they can be quite short-sighted,” Bonnick states.
“The training is delivered to get someone on site next week but then what happens to that individual after that point?
“What we’re trying to do here is invest in the facilities and people early enough in the scheme so that in 2029 when I click my fingers and say I need 2000 ground workers on site, they’re there and ready.”
Local supply chain
A key aim for LTC’s Skills Hubs is to provide opportunities for people local to the scheme. As a concept, they want the people who will be impacted by the tunnel’s construction to also play a part in creating the infrastructure. In practice, they aim to hire at least 45% of the workforce from within a 30km radius.
To take part in one of the boot camps at the Gravesend Skills Hub, participants have to be over 19, have been a resident in the UK for at least three years and also live in Kent or Medway.
In anticipation of the official launch earlier this year, LTC’s Skills Hub team partnered with Gallagher Group and Flannery Plant Hire to launch a pilot hub last year.
“LTC has just made us think differently,” says Gallagher Group chief executive officer Lyndsey Gallagher.
“It’s changed us as a business; we now add different objectives into our business plans every year and allocate more money to them.
“I think the Skills Hubs will change a lot of Kent companies and Essex businesses and I think major projects are a brilliant way for companies to come together and bring new people into our industry.
“It’s not just about LTC and Gallagher. I’ve never seen the Kent contractors all come together so much, which is good, because as an industry we’re all so disjointed.”
The impact of the pilot Skills Hub has certainly been felt locally. A number of the participants of the pilot have gone on to get jobs with construction firms in the area.
Beyond the effect on local companies, Gallagher Aggregates managing director Sean Connor believes there is a piece beyond just Kent and Essex contractors benefitting.
“We’ve almost created a monster, really, now people have caught on to what we’re doing here,” he says.
“We seem to be holding more seminars and events at the quarry than making aggregate.
“We’ve had the likes of HSBC and Kreston Reeves attending and they bring their supply chain. That’s the most exciting thing for me, this legacy of telling other people how to do it and how easy it is to do it – you just need a bit of commitment and a bit of collaboration.
“We’re radiating that into our supply chain and that’s an important link to LTC’s ambitions, which is not just about employment, it’s about skills and leaving a legacy.”
While the Gravesend site will service Kent, LTC has plans to open another facility in Essex as the project progresses.
Prison-leavers
One aspect of legacy creation the LTC Skills Hubs aims to provide is a second opportunity at life for people who are either serving active time in prison or have recently left incarceration.
They will provide training courses for participants including men and women on day release from Kent-based prisons.
HMP Standford Hill activities manager Paul Barber says: “We all talk about the Dartford Crossing as a landmark, well LTC is going to be a landmark too.
“There’s a legacy a project this big can leave and if some people from the prison get to work on the foundations, lay some concrete and do some tarmacking, they’re going to be able to say to their kids, ‘I worked on that landmark’.”
Opportunities with benefits like this are unfortunately few and far between.
“Being involved with initiatives such as the Skills Hub gives prisoners hope,” Barber continues. “It also fills a critical gap in the industry for labour and it reduces reoffending, which means fewer victims, safer communities and massive savings for the public purse. How can that not be a good thing?”
Future skills
Looking to the future, LTC, as a project, has a vision of changing the course of the construction industry for good.
National Highways has promoted the project as a carbon neutral construction “pathfinder” scheme, with aims to reduce construction carbon emissions by 70% from initial estimates – a target that was upped from 50% and is written into the DCO requirement. This notion is trickling down into the companies involved with the project’s supply chain too.
“We’ve been asked by JCB if we would partner and do a trial for hydrogen with them,” says Gallagher.
“That’s the first trial they’ve had outside of their own quarry. That then gave us the thought that electric lorries and electric machinery are the future.
“We’re now pulling together – with Flannery – a green skills mechanics’ training course.
“Green skills training is going to be key, which will then help our industry for the future.”
With LTC due to create the UK’s longest road tunnel, its desire is to leave behind more than just concrete between Kent and Essex. It’s a forward-thinking initiative that isn’t just grappling with the future of a decarbonised construction industry, but is also doing its best to offer valuable people opportunities to enter the sector.
“When you think about a project’s legacy, it’s often something you think of at the end,” Bonnick says. “With LTC, we’ve really put a lot of time and effort into thinking about what we want to leave behind – at the beginning of the scheme – and then thinking, what are we here to deliver?”
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