Press Release

New legacy training initiative for the Olympic Boroughs

18th April 2007

ConstructionSkills and The Housing Forum announce ‘Construction Legacy - London’

ConstructionSkills and The Housing Forum today announced a new initiative designed to ensure local people benefit from the training and employment opportunities offered by the Olympics and associated improvement programmes. Aimed at areas of high unemployment and skills shortages, ‘Construction Legacy - London’ builds on a series of successful Demonstration projects over the past two years, and takes best practice and learning from the Housing sector into the Olympic boroughs and their catchment areas.

The ‘Sustainable Training for Sustainable Communities’ programme (renamed ‘Construction Legacy - Housing’) has engaged local trainees on 24 social housing Demonstration projects covering refurbishment, new build and regeneration, with a particular focus on candidates traditionally under-represented in the construction industry.  Around 180 organisations (clients, contractors, sub-contractors and suppliers) are involved in the training of some 4,000 local candidates. 

Having established a strong collaborative relationship The Housing Forum and ConstructionSkills today launched Construction Legacy - London (CLL), at The Housing Forum’s National Conference. The programme aims to sign up major housing and regeneration Demonstration projects and to map their progress, successes and outcomes through 15 agreed themes. It is expected that the high participation rate of Black and Minority Ethnic (over 10%) and female (almost 5%) candidates on Phase 1 & 2 of Construction Legacy - Housing can be repeated.

Benchmarked annually, the initiative will highlight best practice and provide crucial feedback, which is critical to the successful development of the Demonstration projects. The outcomes of Construction Legacy - London will be monitored for age, gender, ethnicity and disability, and will be measured on the basis of a number of targets:

• Number of jobs with a training element
• Skills training for site supervisors
• Volume of assessor training
• Progression through NVQ levels

This joint initiative between The Housing Forum and ConstructionSkills, will target key participants in Construction Legacy – London to include the ALMOs, Housing Associations, Colleges, Training Agencies, contractors and their supply chain partners working in the Olympic borough areas and their catchments.  The East Thames Group is already signed up with a further four organisations expected to be signed up by the end of May.

Paul Sykes, Recruitment Manager at ConstructionSkills stated:
“The real Olympic legacy should be the people of London, particularly the people from the Olympic and surrounding Boroughs. We’re pleased to be collaborating further with the Housing Forum in order to contribute to the Government’s agenda for sustainable communities. I’m confident this joint initiative will provide opportunities for local, often disadvantaged people, to access training, starter jobs and tools required to become qualified.”

Shelagh Grant, Chief Executive of the Housing Forum said:
“We are pleased to be collaborating further with ConstructionSkills and contributing to the training and upskilling of the industry to help in delivering the Government’s agenda for sustainable communities, including new build housing development and regeneration. This initiative will be entered into with the same spirit of the 2012 Construction Commitments that will deliver sustainable, exemplary projects with long-term benefits for the local community and the nation.”

Construction Legacy – London is the follow on of the partnership between ConstructionSkills and The Housing Forum built on Phases 1 & 2 of the Construction Legacy – Housing Demonstration projects which consisted of:

• Phase 1 of the Construction Legacy - Housing involved 16 Demonstration projects delivering repairs, maintenance and refurbishment of social housing concentrating on the Decent Homes programme.
• Phase 2 has taken the number up to 24 Demonstration projects including some multi-project demonstrations operating under a single umbrella, as well as a broadened portfolio including new build and large regeneration schemes. 

Construction Legacy – Housing continues with the aim of getting 25 more major regeneration projects on board round the country, as part of a rolling programme over the next three years.