More Focus – Page 390
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FeaturesA sure way in
Construction apprenticeships are as popular as ever with young people, but employers are less enthusiastic about the costs involved. So what can be done to give young people a secure path into the industry?
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FeaturesA collective task: training for local people
Whitefriars Housing Group is a collective of three housing firms that formed in September 2000 to manage more than 19,000 former Coventry council homes.
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FeaturesCrème de la crème
A degree and a pile of debt – the net result after several years of hard study and student nights out. But how prepared are graduates for the tough world of work and the particular demands of construction?
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A mature influence
Stories of posh plumbers – city bankers who swap pinstripes for overalls – may be exaggerated, but it is true that an increasing number of people in other professions want to learn construction skills. So how can the industry meet their training needs?
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FeaturesStep 2: equip the workforce - A matter of life and death
Construction sites are always going to be dangerous places to work – despite efforts to improve health and safety attitudes. Here’s how government, unions and contractors are trying to minimise accidents
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FeaturesWhere credit’s due
Talent, skill and hard work characterise most of construction’s 2 million workers, yet in the past the industry has not formerly recognised their contributions or helped individuals develop their careers. Now companies are waking up to the value of staff and are investing in lifelong training
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A better deal for migrants
Foreign workers play a vital role in construction, and to protect them from exploitation more needs to be done to regulate pay and conditions as well as improve health and safety training
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FeaturesStep 3: integrate the supply - We’re only as strong as our weakest link …
Construction’s worst flaw is said to be its supply chain, which is why so much work is going into improving relationships between suppliers, contractors and clients. Here are some examples of joined-up thinking
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Appendix 1: regional skills roundup - A nationwide skills hunt
Employers across the country complain of a skills shortage, but has it hit some regions more than others? And could we be experiencing the effects of a North-South divide? Some researchers intend to find out …
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Appendix 2: the government’s role - Friends in high places
Public spending is on the increase – which means construction and government need each other more than ever before. Here’s how the two of them are coming to a mutual understanding …
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Bovis hits number one with £171m work in October
£140m PFI cancer centre in Leeds helps it take monthly title – and consolidate lead in annual table
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Local lowdown: Yorkshire
As multimillion-pound developments begin to crop up across Yorkshire, Robert Smith of Hays Montrose looks at some of the job prospects in the region
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FeaturesThe secret epidemic
We all know the horrific statistic that a construction worker dies every three or four days. What this figure conceals is the hundred of thousands of others struggling with work-related illness, trauma and stress.
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FeaturesPeak performance
The Health and Safety Laboratory provides technical back-up for the Health and Safety Executive, a remit that includes exploding trucks full of fireworks and body piercing. And it now has a £56m PFI base in Derbyshire to work out of. We found out what it does – and how it ...
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A nip in the air
In this month’s Tracker, Experian Business Strategies division reports that growth in orders is slowing and the activity growth rate is expected to fall over the three months to December
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The future is here
Los Angeles: Year 2004. Fifteen years earlier than Ridley Scott suggested, Blade Runner architecture has landed on the West Coast in the shape of this transportation HQ.
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FeaturesTurfing Dracula out of his coffin
The castle that inspired the novel Dracula is to be turned into holiday apartments, but locals are branding it a huge mi-“stake”.
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FeaturesRedesign depression
Plans for Leicester’s Haymarket theatre have one councillor down in the dumps.