Britain's home builders urged to maintain skills

To help the industry maintain skills and adopt new ones during the downturn, NHBC is launching its "Supporting the Industry" campaign.

They are offering free training and advice to home building firms that have been forced to cut training and development budgets.

Professional institutions such as RIBA, ABE and RICS recommend their members undertake a set number of hours of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) learning per year* to keep up to date with ever-changing standards.

Under the initiative, NHBC is scheduling a range of short courses at locations across the country.

These will cover core subjects such as construction best practice, building control, engineering and health and safety.

Rob Lockey, head of training services at NHBC, said: "With building firms cutting budgets, and construction techniques changing faster than ever before, we believe is it important to do what we can to support industry skills - because the industry will pick up, and builders will need to be prepared.

"We know that time is precious for those builders still working, and so we have carefully designed our sessions to allow attendees to get as much relevant advice and training as possible in a short timeframe - this way, we hope that managers will see the long-term benefit of allowing their teams to attend.

And, the sessions are available for everyone - from bigger firms to individuals".

The training sessions are available free to NHBC-registered builders and at a small cost for all others.

For full details of the training programme, go to the website.

* ABE recommends 35 hours per year OR 105 hours over 3 years; RIBA recommends 35 hours per year; RICS recommends 60 hours in any 3 year period - with at least 10 hours each year.

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