Peter Mawson, chief executive of West Northamptonshire Development Corporation (WNDC) will speak at the forthcoming Westminster Briefing Conference entitled ‘Building a strong, sustainable construction industry: developing partnerships, committing to people’.
To be hosted by the House Magazine on June 17 in Westminster, he will be joining a distinguished panel including Paul Morrell, the Government’s new chief construction adviser (CCA), Mark Farrer, chief executive of ConstructionSkills, Philip White, HSE’s chief inspector of construction, and Don Ward, chief executive of Constructing Excellence.
The conference will discuss a number of key policy and practice issues facing the construction industry, one of which is training and skills: developing training routes into the construction industry and enhancing skills possessed by the current workforce.
Peter Mawson will take the opportunity to highlight WNDC’s development of Construction Futures, which was launched on two sites in Daventry last year, and is the first initiative of its kind in the UK. It links construction skills and training directly to the planning system, providing training to local students on projects which have been given consent in their area. Not only does Construction Futures address skills shortages, it provides jobs for the local community, and these jobs are sustainable as they will lead to careers which will last a lifetime.
WNDC has worked in partnership with Northamptonshire Enterprise Limited (NEL), Moulton College, and ConstructionSkills to develop Construction Futures. The initiative was shortlisted in the Sustain Magazine Awards last month, and is the subject of an Early Day Motion by former Daventry MP, Tim Boswell, in the House of Commons calling for the innovation to be recognised by the Government and its wider use encouraged.
Peter Mawson said: “The Westminster Briefing Conference will present an excellent opportunity to demonstrate WNDC’s innovative approach to the perennial problem of construction skills shortages, especially at the end of a recession. The Construction Futures training scheme ensures local communities receive direct benefits from building projects in their area and places young people at the heart of regeneration.
“The presence of the chief construction adviser, who has training as one of his priorities to address, and the chief executive of ConstructionSkills will raise awareness of the initiative, and possibly encourage its wider adoption.”
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