Retraining and Up-skilling in the Construction Sector

Construction professionals are obviously keen to up-skill as exemplified by the 54% of respondents, in a recent Hays survey, answering that they would work for free in order to make themselves more attractive to prospective employers. A similar number criticised the training available to them through organisations such as FÁS as inadequate in an environment where competition for jobs is fierce. So to improve their employment prospects the perception is that you need to be studying at Degree or Masters level - but this is simply not feasible for an unemployed Engineer who is trying to support a family on social welfare entitlements. A staggering 78% felt that they cannot re-train due to financial restrictions.

What does this say about the system in place? We have a large chunk of social welfare recipients who are already highly qualified and skilled but cannot find work in their field. They are willing to change career path and to retrain but all that's available to them are mediocre courses that the majority of them have no faith in. I will avoid joining the chorus of FÁS bashers and just say that the content and strength of these courses is clearly inadequate and needs to be over-hauled. Of course all this would be less necessary if there was some commitment to capital investment thereby creating the type of jobs these people are qualified for. These professionals would then become contributors to the exchequer and investment in infrastructure would go a long way to improving the competitiveness of the overall economy.

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Construction Retraining Survey Results – hays.ie
Buliders would ‘work for free’ to secure job – independent.ie