Construction Courses Are Soaring

Construction Courses Are Soaring

By:


When times are hard, companies look to cut costs, and hope to survive until the upturn comes. As a result, theyre forced into taking a short-term view, cutting back on training and reducing their investment in the future.

One of the areas to suffer is recruitment in general, and graduate recruitment in particular. So the first wave of graduates who have actually paid for their education through student fees may find the job they want at the end of it just simply isnt there.

The employment trends report shows that almost two fifths of employers have frozen graduate recruitment and a further 10% are reducing the numbers they take on. Only 5% were planning to recruit more graduates. Unsurprisingly, as the number of building projects fell, the construction sector was hardest hit with 54% of the companies imposing a freeze on graduate recruitment.

The Higher Education Careers Service Unit reported 8.9% of graduates out of work, the worst figures since 1993. The figures were even worse for those looking for careers in construction and engineering, with architecture and building, mechanical engineering and civil engineering showing graduate unemployment rates at 10.9%, 11.8% and 11.9% respectively. All surveys showed that graduate recruitment in the public sector had held up well, although this is unlikely to remain the case as the Comprehensive Spending Review starts to take effect.

The current situation is in stark contrast from as recently as two years ago when many firms biggest headache was having more work and opportunities than they could staff. This coupled with a skills shortage of construction professionals meant that young people were actively being incentivised to take construction degree courses. Courses sponsored by Industry and paid holiday placements saw the number and demand for construction courses soar. It was not uncommon for people to be graduating with a job waiting for them at their sponsoring company whilst they sifted through offers from other prospective employers.

Despite the current problems however, having a degree remains an asset, with graduates expected to earn an average of 160,000 more during their career compared to someone with A level qualifications, or no qualifications at all. The downside for the construction sector is that only 25% of jobs in construction require degree level skills, which is below the average. This is due to a number of factors, including the number of manual jobs, the high number of small and medium sized firms (over 250,000) and the fact that 40% of workers are self-employed. Nevertheless, most major companies have graduate recruitment programmes, including Atkins, Balfour Beatty and Carillion even if they have lowered their levels of recruitment.

Not only are the graduates finding themselves out of jobs, but those already in the construction industry are finding cut backs and job losses frequently difficult to maintain a good paying job, or even work.

The only way construction workers are finding themselves untouched by the financial crisis, is by having the qualifications to back up their experience, even though many have never needed the qualifications before. There are a variety of BTEC courses available today, ranging from general skilled courses, to dispute avoidance courses.

About the Author:
Jade webster is a digital marketer researching dispute avoidance courses



Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com


Tags: , ,

|

Loading...
Related....
Videos...

Recent College-University Articles

Comments

Still can't find what you are looking for? Search for it!

Loading

Site Navigation:

Copyright 2005-2011 ArticleSnatch, LLC - All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy | Terms of Service.