The construction sector generally suffers from a lack of qualified labour. On one hand, the economic crisis that hit construction also had a deep impact on the skills in the sector. On the other hand, employment is forecast to increase by 3.9% between 2013 and 2025 across the EU, mainly due to the need to replace employees leaving the sector.
The challenges will therefore be to ensure the training of an adequate number of new entrants to take over from retiring professionals and upskill the existing workforce.
EBC decided to provide some recommendations for policy-makers about the needs of the construction sector to develop more and better apprenticeships in the sector. This is a part of EBC’s commitment in the framework of the European Alliance for Apprenticeship.
Our recommendations would be:
- Better involvement of SME associations and social partners in apprenticeship schemes and definition of the sector’s skills;
- Massive national campaigns to improve the image of manual trades in general and the construction sector in particular;
- Targeting women in apprenticeship schemes for construction;
- Integrating entrepreneurship education in vocational education and training curricula;
- Supporting small and medium-sized companies to engage in apprenticeship;
- Better use of the European funds to promote new skills