New mindset needed

Richard Threlfall, head of Infrastructure at KPMG UK, welcomed September’s National Infrastructure Plan for Skills announcement. He said: “This forces the construction industry to look beyond the current skills crisis to the long-term need to invest in its people, get serious about apprenticeships, and to re-train and diversify its workforce. The report showsan overall need for 100,000 additional construction workers and engineers, and at least 250,000 of the existing workforce that need retraining. We need an entirely different mind-set in the industry if we are to meet thechallenge which InfrastructureUK has identified.”