NEWS
insideindustry
The Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) has asked the government to make urgent provision to avert potential workforce shortages in the event of a ‘no deal’ Brexit. It backs recommendations made by the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) to review the rules governing the 165,000 EU citizens currently employed by the construction industry to ensure valuable skills are not lost to the UK economy. In particular, BESA believes the required qualification level for a skilled worker should be reduced to NVQ Level 2 and the salary threshold for a skilled worker be set well below the £30,000 currently planned by the government. “There is a fundamental
misunderstanding in Whitehall about what constitutes a skilled worker in construction-related trades,” said director of BESA Training, Tony Howard. “Many of the people recently labelled as ‘low skilled’ by the Prime Minister actually bring essential craft skills to our critical construction and infrastructure projects. “At the moment, government Brexit policy risks excluding Level 2 tradespeople like plumbers, bricklayers and carpenters. Losing thousands of those could be catastrophic and put the delivery of many UK projects at risk.” BESA has added its support to a CLC report, which is backed by more than 100 construction industry leaders, calling for the government and industry to work together to ensure that all of
the eligible EU citizens currently living in the UK and working in the construction sector are able to register for settled or pre-settled status. It also calls for the short-term worker visa to be extended to 24 months to reduce the uncertainty being felt by many migrant workers and for mutual recognition of qualifications across the EU and UK in the event of a ‘no deal’. Mr Howard added: “We recognise
the need for the industry to keep developing its own long-term training and recruitment strategies to replenish the ‘home grown’ pool of skilled labour, but we also have urgent short-term needs that could be seriously undermined without access to EU migrant workers. “We are fully committed to
investing in apprenticeships and the training of UK-based workers, but the scale of the country’s built environment commitments requires access to the widest possible skills base.”
Air quality has hit the headlines again in recent weeks with a study of leading health professionals identifying the harm air pollution is doing to children*. But what are the realities of building for better Indoor Air Quality and what technologies are available? This theme will be explored in the 2019 CIBSE Technical Symposium in April.
The session stream, titled The realities of building IAQ (Indoor Air Quality), will look at new research and case-studies related to this area of growing concern. Planned
presentations include: a review of the current state of IAQ science and instrumenting technologies; how plants can act as a building service, improving indoor air quality and reducing energy consumption; a case-study showing an exemplar approach to IAQ in a new office fit-out; and a study of the link between indoor environment and workplace productivity.
The 2019 Symposium, organised
by the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) and now in its ninth year, is taking place at the University of Sheffield on the 25 and 26 of April. The theme for this year’s event is Transforming Built Environments – driving change with engineering will focus on the advances in materials, technologies and techniques which lead to and motivate positive change. Attendees will gain access to over 70 presentations, case studies and
research papers across the two-day event. As well as covering IAQ the
planned core session streams will cover the wide range of research and development being undertaken across the built environment industry. These include: informing future performance assessment; commissioning and operation; sourcing energy with low environmental impact; delivering and assessing performance in building lighting; modelling and simulation; developing sustainable buildings and systems; heat networks; and passive design. The Technical Symposium is a diverse and inclusive event which provides an opportunity for students, building services professionals and academics to examine and share research, developments and applications that will drive change in the built environment.
10 April 2019
www.acr-news.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56
