Workstream 3: People development

The construction workforce must grow and develop so it can meet the demand for new residential housing, commercial buildings and infrastructure. This workstream aims to build capability through addressing skills gaps, supporting the Reform of Vocational Education (RoVE), and understanding long-term workforce gaps.

Key outputs will include a new Construction Skills Strategy and a Roadmap toward diversity, equity and inclusion in the sector.

Construction Skills Strategy

The three-year cross-government Construction Skills Action Plan (CSAP) concluded in November 2021. With CSAP’s conclusion comes the opportunity to assess a future skills direction for the construction and infrastructure sector and create a unified vision for development of the right skills. In contrast to the long-term workforce plan (which looks at what skills we need and where), the Construction Skills Strategy will address how government and industry might get there.

Further workshops will take place in early 2022 and the final strategy will be released before the end of the Accord’s current transformation plan, in June 2022.

Reform of Vocational Education (RoVE)

Support for the Reform of Vocational Education (RoVE) is a core part of the Accord’s People Development work stream. It aims to create a more unified and sustainable vocational education system that delivers the skills that learners, employers and communities need to thrive. The reformed system will have a stronger focus on employers, delivering the skills they need and ensuring greater consistency in education across the country.

The Accord is supporting the RoVE through the work of the ConCOVE and Waihanga Ara Rau Workforce Development Council, by connecting and facilitating collaboration across the industry to deliver better education outcomes for the sector.

Infrastructure Skills Centre

The Accord supported two Infrastructure Skills Centre pilots in partnership with Ministry of Social Development, Fulton Hogan and Civil Contractors NZ. They are six-week on-job and off-job programmes designed to give participants skills needed to step onto a civil site. The programme differs from other entry-level training by ensuring all participants are employed prior to starting the course. The six-week pilots were delivered in both Canterbury and the Manawatū with a total of 20 participants across both programmes. Auckland and Wellington pilots were delayed due to alert level changes and will run in 2022.

Learnings from the pilots will support intended replication of the model by other employers across the sector, and a longitudinal study has commenced with the Canterbury Infrastructure Skills Centre graduates, led by the ConCOVE.

ConCOVE

The Accord is part of a consortium of construction sector bodies leading the Construction Centre of Vocational Excellence (ConCoVE). It is addressing six research projects over the next four years to inform innovation in vocational education and training in the sector: Career Framework, Disruption, Entry, Career Progression, Diversity, and Sustainability.

Long-term workforce plan

The Accord supports the work of Waihanga Ara Rau Workforce Development Council and CanConstruct in delivering the long-term workforce plan.

• Waihanga Ara Rau will continue to build on the earlier work of the BCITO in delivering the Workforce Information Platform (wip.org. nz), an analysis of the pipeline of work and corresponding availability of skills
• CanConstruct NZ is a consortium of universities and BRANZ, funded by an MBIE Endeavour Fund award. It is looking at supply and demand across the construction sector over the next five years.

Workforce Research Forum

A research forum was convened with participants from across the wider tertiary education, government and sector for the purposes of sharing research direction, challenges and opportunities and importantly. This initiative will reduce duplication and support collaboration across the research system.

Construction Diversity Roadmap

The Construction Diversity Roadmap project has completed employer and employee surveys and in-person interviews resulting in a Gap Analysis report. This was delivered during December.

The Roadmap toward diversity, equity and inclusion is set to be published by mid-2022.