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<p>As we prepare to leave the EU, we continue to contribute to the work with the Home
Office on future migration arrangements.</p><p> </p><p>The government’s role is to
make the skills system more responsive to demand. We are reforming the technical education
system to be more responsive to the needs of employers. These reforms sit alongside
our now-established programme of apprenticeship reforms.</p><p> </p><p>60 apprenticeship
standards for construction routes are now approved for delivery, with more in development.
We are also running pilots across the country to raise the profile of apprenticeships
in disadvantaged areas, to improve access to apprenticeships in key sectors such as
engineering, manufacturing and construction.</p><p> </p><p>In the Construction Sector
Deal, the construction industry has committed to raising the number of apprenticeship
starts to 25,000 starts per year by 2025.</p><p> </p><p>Construction is also one of
the first routes for T level delivery, with the Design and Planning pathway launching
in 2020. The Onsite Construction and Building Engineering pathways are expected to
launch in 2021.</p><p> </p><p>The construction industry has shown that it values T
Levels and has committed through the Construction Sector Deal to offering 1000 work
placements from 2020. This will enable all Construction T level students to access
a high quality, real-life experience which will help make sure that they are ‘site-ready’
on completion of their course.</p><p> </p><p>Collectively, these reforms will improve
the supply of new entrants to the construction sector. Officials estimate that these
changes will increase the number of new sector entrants by approximately 25% by the
mid-2020s.</p><p> </p><p>For adults already in the labour market, construction offers
a range of high quality job opportunities. The Construction Skills Fund is a cross-government
programme with industry and is underway to address the current skills shortages in
the sector. The department was allocated £24 million to support the development of
on-site construction training hubs across England in 2018-19 and 2019-2020. The Construction
Industry Training Board (CITB) are allocating this fund and have committed to delivering
more than 20 hubs that will train 13,000 employment-ready learners by March 2020.</p><p>
</p><p>The CITB provides a wide range of services and initiatives to mitigate the
current skills shortages, including paying grants to employers to carry out training
to improve standards, adopting modern methods of construction (MMC), improving careers
advice and improving site readiness and transitions from study to work, including
through a new “boot camp” pilot scheme initiative.</p><p> </p><p>Lastly, the government
is encouraging the expansion of MMC, which presents the opportunity to greatly reduce
the level of skilled workers needed on building sites using these methods.</p><p>
</p><p>The department has built 57 schools using MMC and, this financial year, we
plan to open another 21 schools. The department has announced a new procurement framework
with a value of up to £3 billion for MMC solutions in schools. This framework is due
to go live by November 2019.</p><p> </p>
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