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According to the most recent Construction Skills Network report, the construction industry is likely to continue to experience significant growth over the next 4 years. This growth surpasses previous expectations, indicating a strong demand for tradespeople in the present and the near future.

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According to the most recent Construction Skills Network report, the construction industry is likely to continue to experience significant growth over the next 4 years. This growth surpasses previous expectations, indicating a strong demand for tradespeople in the present and the near future.

More...

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We are pleased to announce that Access Training is now partnered with Rated People, the UK's top online marketplace for trustworthy tradespeople.

Anyone can post a job on the Rated People website - for example, if Joe Bloggs needs a plumber to fix his leaky sink, he can submit a request via Rated People and nearby tradespeople will be able to offer their services.

Once the job is done and dusted, Joe can post a review on the plumber's profile page to let others know whether that particular tradesman proved reliable.

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The UK's economic recovery has 'Build, Build, Build' as its new mantra - so the future looks bright for skilled tradespeople in the construction industry.

Construction cranes

"We will build, build, build. Build back better, build back greener, build back faster, and do that at the pace that this moment requires," said Boris Johnson as he focused on trade skills to get the country back up and running.

This is a positive message for anyone considering a long-term career in the trades. The Prime Minister has promised a massive building programme to put jobs and infrastructure at the centre of his economic growth strategy.

New skilled trade job opportunities were promised, and the Prime Minister also highlighted the need to prioritise education. He said he wanted to end the current injustice, which he called "such a waste of human talent", and announced that his new plan would create "thousands of high-paid, high-skilled jobs", acknowledging that many jobs lost since January would not come back.

That's where Access Training Academies can help you. We can give you the trade skills you'll need to be part of this new initiative.

The government's £5 billion investment program is based around infrastructure projects that are designed to stimulate the UK economy and get people working in skilled trade jobs. This new initiative will only serve to encourage ​those considering a career change to become part of one of the only sectors that's likely to move forward quickly as the country comes out of lockdown.

The new construction-focused spending package includes:

  • £1.5 billion this year in hospital spending
  • Over £1 billion for a school rebuilding programme
  • £560 million for repairs and upgrades to schools and further education colleges
  • Millions of pounds to upgrade courts and prisons
  • £900 million for local projects
  • £96 million for town centres and funding to accelerate infrastructure projects in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

All of these projects will require electricians, plumbers, gas engineers and carpenters. So now is a fantastic time to learn a trade and join the construction industry - especially if the coronavirus pandemic has negatively impacted your current line of work.

Boris Johnson's announcement was based on funding that offers many people great new opportunities. "That is how it is meant to sound and to be, because that is what the times demand," he added.

The future for skilled tradespeople has never been brighter. Call Access Training on 0800 345 7492 to discuss your new career options.

Contact Access Training   Browse Trade Courses

Photo from Pexels

A recent survey conducted by Retail Company Screw fix, shows that two out of five tradespeople were giving more quotes for work than a year ago, and more than half of the trades people who took part in the survey said that their business was better than the previous year, in particular, plumbers, electricians and carpenters are extremely optimistic about their business outlook during 2016.

In 2015, the skilled trade industry experienced an increase in demand towards the end of the year, fortunately this trend has continued into 2016, with one in seven tradespeople stating that they have too much work on their books.Most of the tradespeople surveyed said that they expected business to remain at the same level, or improve over the next 12 months.

If you are a regular reader of our blog posts, you will notice that we write about the current skills shortage crisis that we are currently experiencing in the UK regularly. The skills shortage is a huge issue that we are currently facing. Currently in the construction industry alone there is a shortage of 35,000 people, this figure naturally increases when domestic tradespeople are added into the equation.

With the increase in demand, it is apparent that – even though good for plumbers, electricians, gas engineers and carpenters, because it means that there is no shortage of work, potential customers will soon start to run into difficulties being able to find a trades person when they need them the most.

If these projections are correct, then 2016 could mean that many tradespeople may start having to work long hours to keep up with the demand. This means that now is the perfect time for people who are thinking about learning or retraining as a skilled trades person or adding taking courses to develop their existing skill set.

Here at Access Training, we have developed alongside City & Guilds, and other awarding bodies, a wide range of fully comprehensive courses that are suitable for people who have no prior industry experience. Our courses will teach you the very basics, through to the more advanced techniques used by trade professionals. 

To find out more about our plumbing, carpentry or electrical courses, contact us today!

One outstanding young tradesperson will win a trip to Barcelona, plus £1,000 worth of new tools!

Britain's workforce is getting older, and with the ongoing skills shortage causing major problems for the UK construction industry, skilled young tradespeople are an extremely valuable resource right now. We're all trying to encourage more young people to learn a trade and turn professional, but at the same time, it's equally important to recognise the young people who are already doing great work across the country.

To that end, British builders' merchants Jewson have launched a new competition that's strictly for UK-based tradespeople under the age of 30. The title of Young Tradesperson of the Year 2016 will be awarded to "a hard worker with the skills, ideas, and passion required to be a true success"; in addition to gaining a great new accolade for their CV, the successful entrant will also win a weekend in Barcelona (including tickets for a football match), plus £1,000 worth of new tools!

If you think you could be Jewson's Young Tradesperson of the Year - of if you'd like to nominate somebody else for the award - here's what to do...

How to enter/nominate

Remember, entrants must be under the age of 30 to have a chance of winning!
  1. Go to www.jewsontools.co.uk/shed/young-tradesperson-of-the-year.

  2. Type your details (or the details of the person you're nominating) into the online entry form.

  3. Explain why your nominee deserves to be crowned Young Tradesperson of the Year. Use no more than 100 words.

  4. Upload up to 3 images to accompany your entry - these might be photographs of an outstanding job, or a before/after picture.

  5. State whether you're nominating yourself or somebody else and click Send nomination.
The competition closes on Monday the 29th of February, so don't wait around - get your nomination in now!

Be sure to follow Access Training on Twitter and Facebook for all the latest trade news and insight.

 

(Image via bradleypjohnson on Flickr)

The UK’s media channels are often rife with horror stories of cowboy tradespeople. People watching programmes like “cowboy builders from hell” on channel 5 or “watchdog” on BBC1 will certainly develop a negative image of the trades men and women in the UK. In fact a staggering 60% of people said that it is fair to label tradespeople as “cowboys” or “rogue traders” and 20% of people said that they’re afraid of being ripped off when they need work done.

Follow these simple steps to avoid being labelled as a rogue trader:

Build relationships with your clients: Take care of little jobs free of charge. This will help increase customer loyalty. When someone is happy with your work, they are more likely to recommend you to their friends. A survey conducted by imperial finance revealed that 37% of people feel that having a relationship with their trades person is important, and 14% of people were referred to their trades person by a friend or family member.

Clean up after yourself: This might seem obvious but it is often overlooked by tradespeople. If you are working on a leaking sink and you spill water on the floor – make sure you mop it up. If you have had to take things out of cupboards to access pipework, make sure you put it all back before you leave.

Make yourself as easy to contact as possible: leave people with a copy of your flyer, business card, or a fridge magnet with your telephone number clearly printed on them, remember to take the visually impaired into consideration. Make sure that you always have your mobile switched on, if you can’t take the call, make sure you call them back at your earliest convenience.

Keep in contact with your clients: after you have completed the work, call the client back, ask them if they are happy with the work – or if they have ran into any complications. 55% customers leave because they have had no contact from you and are indifferent. After Job Service is often more important than the job itself, this is where you can really start to build relationships with your clients and go above and beyond your call of duty.  Loyal customers spend on average 33% more than people who are non-loyal and can refer up to 107% more customers than non-loyal customers.

Make it easy for people to get references:  set up social media sites, and encourage people to review your business online – this is effective because people buy from people if someone has a something bad to say about your business then people are less likely to hire you to do the work. Make sure you leave them with nothing bad to say! Set up a website to showcase your qualifications, and show people that you really are an expert in your field. This will give people confidence in your ability as a trades person.

Make sure you are fully trained for the job: again it might seem like an obvious point, but if you are not correctly trained for the work don’t take it on. Leaving the work half way through or doing a bad job can damage your reputation.

You can’t start a career as a skilled trades person until you have received expert training. No matter what career you are considering Access Training can help. We offer courses for beginners looking to learn a new trade through to more experienced tradespeople who are looking to expand their service offering.

To find out more about the courses we offer at our state-of-the-art training centres you can contact us by calling (Freephone) 0800 345 7492 or by filling out the enquiry form here.

Set up by the Women's Engineering Society (WES) to celebrate its 95th anniversary, today is National Women in Engineering Day and its aim is to focus attention on the great opportunities available to women in the engineering sector and construction industry as a whole.

The aim is to encourage all groups - from the Government and employers to careers advisers and students, to work together toward creating an environment to encourage and increase the number of women engineers. People are doing their own things across the UK - from college talks to publishing polls of their female workforce in an attempt to highlight potential barriers. Results from construction service WSP proved quite promising, with more than 20% of their engineering workforce female and 43% of these graduate rank or below. The majority of those surveyed also didn't believe that gender hindered their career progression, that there weren't any barriers to them upon entering and that they even had engineering mentioned to them as a career at school. Hopefully these are signs that the number of women entering the industry are indeed increasing.

The gender imbalance in the construction industry is something we feel very strongly about here at Access, and something we want to do our part it down. Recently we were featured on Sky News' piece about the troubles of "White Van Women", where Sky's reporters came down and spoke to our trainees and tutors about their thoughts on women in the industry. We're in agreement that construction isn't at all a man's world, and male dominance has only really come from years of stereotyping and women being guided away from those sort of careers. Notice how a lot of people simply say "tradesman"? Little things like that are enough to simply sway young people away.

This is why for the entire month of July, Access Training will be offering up to 50% off of ALL of our courses to female trainees. In addition to that we'll be spending the month featuring testimonials from some of our female trainees who have either just finished their courses here or have now gone to to bigger and better things with their trade qualifications so you can read all about the life tradespeople lead. So if you're looking to start a career in plumbing, electric, gas, carpentry, plastering, tiling, painting/decorating or even all of the above and just need to find the right training to get those all-important qualifications - keep an eye on Access throughout July. Every little bit of saving helps and upon completion of our training courses you may find yourself well on the way to setting up your own business. 

In the meantime, for more information on our courses give our advice team a call on 0800 345 7492.

Statistics via The Construction Index

Click here for more info on National Women in Engineering Day

Last week we blogged about how Sky News came down to our centre to looking for women entering trade professions such as plumbing, electrics, painting/decorating, carpentry and more. In the morning they spent filming, Sky not only had a good look around our centre but also spoke to a few of our female trainees - and of course our carpentry tutor!

The filming was for a piece they've titled White Van Woman 'Held Back By Sexism', which suggests that the recent claim that women make up around 6% of all tradespeople might not be as accurate as people are claiming. In fact, they spoke to Women and Manual Trades and found that figure to be more like 1%. Despite trade careers not being pushed hard enough to school leavers, women account for one in ten of those signing up for training here at Access and hopefully that figure will continue to grow as the gender barriers are slowly broken down.

Following an interview with Stopcock's Hattie Hasan, the report takes a look at the training environment we have here at Access and speaks to trainee plumber Mary Henderson. Following that carpentry tutor Gary gives his input on why women should be encouraged more to take up trade careers.

The full video can be viewed below:

Link to full Sky News feature

It seems our Tuesday blog post, entitled "Female Tradespeople on the Rise", was perfectly timed as yesterday Access Training received a visit from none other than Sky News. Working on a piece looking at the growth of females in trade careers such as plumbing, gas, carpentry, painting/decorating and more, Sky had a look around our centre before filming some of our woman trainees hard at work and then briefly interviewing them on their thoughts on women in the trade. Also interviewed as our very own carpentry tutor Gary, giving some of his thoughts on the differences he's seen between men and women working in the trade.

With women tradespeople now reportedly making up nearly 6% of the industry's overall workforce, the media are finally paying more attention to female tradespeople and why they are just as good (if not better) for the job as men are. The Sky News report won't just focus on women training here at Access, but also speak with women who have been working in the business for sometime.

Take a look below to see some of the photos we took from yesterday's filming:

The short piece is set to go out on Sky News sometime this weekend (we'll update you via Twitter and Facebook once it is confirmed) and will likely be shown repeatedly throughout the day. Be sure to watch out for us and if you're thinking of training towards a trade career - give us a call on 0800 345 7492! You'll then be able to get in contact with our course advice team, learn more about the courses we offer and even come visit our training facilities. As well as becoming a professional tradesperson quickly and effectively, who knows - maybe you'll end up on TV too!

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