Last year, following Gillingham and Rainham MP Naushabah Khan’s visit to the Construction course at MidKent College, principal Simon Cook called on the Government to invest in bricklaying teachers. In a week when it was reported that Labour’s housebuilding pledge was at risk due to a shortage of bricklayers, is it possible that Medway could become a skills leader for the construction industry?
Last month, Naushabah raised the issue in parliament during Prime Minister’s Questions. She asked him to set up a meeting with the Skills Minister to discuss the recruitment challenges that colleges like MidKent are facing.
Speaking to us following the question, the MP first described how the question came about following her visit to the college. She describes the colleges as “a really important part of Medway, and where I got to try a bit of bricklaying. It was good fun, and I met some great students.” One concern that was raised at the time of the visit is that while there are lots of Medway residents who want to participate in the course, the college does not always have the capacity of teaching staff to meet the demand.
“I’m very aware that the government’s got a massive agenda around house building and I think it’s really important”, the MP says. Naturally, a lack of workers with construction skills would put that agenda at risk. She is also keen to see a revival in Gillingham’s local economy, and thinks these things can go hand in hand. “How do we make sure that young people are getting the opportunities they need in terms of what the future of this country looks like?” Part of her vision for the area is to build a workforce that will be building the homes of the future. “It would be great to say, look over there, that was built by Tom or Jennifer who grew up in Gillingham, went to college here, got construction skills here and now part of the future drive for this country.”
The Prime Minister responded positively to Naushbah’s question on the day and agreed that a meeting with the Skills Minister would occur to discuss the situation in more detail. For the politics geeks, this was Naushbah’s first PMQ question, and it’s clear that she is still excited by the moment. “I think maybe if it helps some of the politics geeks amongst the readers, because I am one, to know it is really hard sometimes to get called in the chamber because you have to sort of put a bid in. From that you get balloted. Some weeks you might get picked and other weeks you won’t. I put in a couple of times because I’ve been wanting to ask this question for a while.”
MidKent College Chief Executive Simon Cook supports the issue being raised. “For our government to deliver its house building ambitions, we need a skilled workforce. Naushabah has rightly raised the question of how our government is investing in skills to help ensure we have enough skilled teachers to train this workforce. MidKent College is proud of its Construction skills training and delivers training to thousands of students every year. However, recruitment of good teachers in these areas is a significant challenge across the UK.”
Three weeks after that PMQs, a meeting was held with the Skills Minister Jacqui Smith MP where Naushbah, Simon, and Strategic Director Kent Further Education Jonathan Shaw got to make their case directly. “It was a really helpful conversation”, says Naushbah. “MidKent, in fairness to them, have already been doing quite a lot of work in terms of speaking to the government about the skills agenda. This was an additional layer. I think they’ve got some really good ideas around how they model this and how they deliver more corporate style contracts, like they already do with the Royal Engineers.”
The Skills Minister was interested in discussing this way of working, as well as the college’s general teaching programme. “There is a roundtable that’s been set up to take this discussion a bit further, as well as a conversation around what the challenges are in recruitment and I know the government are taking it quite seriously in terms of trying to address some of those challenges.” Naushbah explains how it is quite easy to find people who’ve worked in construction for a number of years, but whether they then want to go into a teaching career and the challenges that come with that is a different matter.
Jonathan Shaw spoke to us following the meeting with the Skills Minister, “we really appreciate the ongoing support for the College and our work to promote skills training opportunities for young people. We had an excellent meeting with the minister, Jacqui Smith, and it was encouraging to hear her positive outlook. We’re looking forward to the release of the new post-16 skills strategy later this year. We expect the issues raised by Naushabah to have made a real impact, and we’re hopeful that we’ll see the changes needed to equip young people with the skills to help drive growth in Kent and Medway.”
She is under no illusions that this will be a fast or simple process, but she feels confident that the right people are talking about it and that there is groundwork already in place. “I think the minister understood quite powerfully, and what was clear is that it wasn’t the end of the conversation, it was the start.”
This article was originally published in the Local Authority.