In a recent CFA manufacturers meeting, Shaun Wadsworth, training manager, presented quite a stark report on the nature of the current skills and labour shortage being experienced within the flooring industry.
He said that the situation now is unfortunately worse than it has ever been, with a 16 per cent labour shortage currently being reported by companies who are CFA members. This equates to a national shortage of about 1,200 fitters for companies within membership and many more if you include the wider sector. This is an increase from 11 per cent before the pandemic. Across construction as a whole, the shortage is around 217,000 workers.
The situation in the contract flooring sector has been made worse by a reduction in the uptake of apprenticeships due to market uncertainty over the past two years, Brexit and Coronavirus, which have impacted in a number of ways.
The CFA is determined to tackle this situation and is developing a number of initiatives which will be unveiled in the coming months designed to improve both the ‘supply’ side (increasing the pipeline of new workers and availability of training) as well as the demand side (helping businesses create opportunities for new staff), as well as identifying new industry and financial support.
The CFA is well aware that the skills and labour shortage is one of the main issues affecting our industry currently, and that is one of the reasons why we were particularly keen to get the FITA training courses going again after the inevitable shutdown during 2020. The FITA Training Centre in Loughborough reopened in July last year, while the facility operated in partnership with Forbo Flooring in Kirkcaldy opened up once again in March this year.
Both centres are now running a full programme of courses, with a 15% discount for CFA members. CFA is also offering help towards employing apprentices, including identifying funding and grants which might be available. Within the last year FITA has also started delivering a new Floor Laying Apprenticeship from the Loughborough training Centre. This is a joint venture between FITA (Flooring Industry Training Association) and Webs Training Ltd, backed by CFA and NICF (National Institute of Carpet and Floorlayers) members – as well as support from numerous FITA sponsors.
Many of our members are now growing their businesses and, as a result of that, they are having to find more employed and subcontract labour. CFA is committed to helping its members employ fitters and they have the added benefit of free support from a Training Manager.
CFA offers a number of tools to help in this process, one of the most important of which is the Training Guide, the prime reference document for anything concerned with training in the floor laying sector. The latest version of the training Guide was published earlier this year. The CFA is also a supporter of important industry initiatives, such as the Construction Talent Retention Scheme and Talent View Construction, which are together designed to attract new entrants into the construction sector, while also retaining the skills that we already have in the industry.
CFA members will get full access and signposting to make the most of these opportunities and will be in the best position to work towards solutions to the skills and labour shortages they are experiencing in their own businesses. In fact, members will be getting regular updates on a number of new initiatives and support we have planned for the coming months. This is all being delivered through our headline ‘Future Fitter’ project which will be launching very soon.
If finding more skilled labour is an issue facing your business, for this and many other benefits, you should consider joining the CFA. Further details can be obtained by emailing info@cfa.org.uk