Despite the fact that the building industry has been booming for more than two years, rising activity in the SME construction sector threatens to be undermined by the prevailing skills shortage, warns the Federation of Master Builders (FMB).Commenting on the results of the FMB’s Q2 2015 State of Trade Survey, Brian Berry, Chief Executive of the FMB, said: “There can be no doubt that the building industry is booming but the skills shortage continues to loom large over our industry. Almost half of construction SMEs are struggling to recruit adequate numbers of bricklayers, with others finding it increasingly hard to hire carpenters and joiners, site managers and supervisors. Looking ahead, our members are reporting that their workloads are likely to rise over the coming three months which means the shortage of skilled workers will only become more acute. It also begs the question, how much stronger would the pace of growth in the UK construction industry be if we had an ample supply of skilled tradespeople?”

Skills shortage is a huge problem within the construction industry, if we don’t invest in training all industries relating to construction will suffer.

If you are a training company specialising in the construction arena (particularly the fenestration markets) we would like to hear from you.

All always, reader comments welcome.

Enjoy this edition of Fenestra Build.