National action plan to transform skills across housing and regeneration sectors
16 June 2009
Twenty-three organisations have joined forces to launch a pioneering action plan that will overhaul place-making skills and improve the delivery of homes and communities.
Unprecedented in scale and ambition, the ground-breaking action plan – Delivering Better Skills for Better Places – will accelerate the development of a flexible, knowledgeable and highly skilled workforce and ensure that there are enough people with the technical, specialist and transferable skills to deliver sustainable communities.
The action plan is launched at CIH 2009
The action plan encompasses professions integral to successful place-making: regeneration, housing, planning, construction, economic development, architecture, urban design, landscape architecture, local government, property, surveying, civil engineering and sustainability.
Twenty-three organisations have joined forces to launch a pioneering action plan that will overhaul place-making skills and improve the delivery of homes and communities.
Unprecedented in scale and ambition, the ground-breaking action plan – Delivering Better Skills for Better Places – will accelerate the development of a flexible, knowledgeable and highly skilled workforce and ensure that there are enough people with the technical, specialist and transferable skills to deliver sustainable communities.
The action plan is launched at CIH 2009
The action plan encompasses professions integral to successful place-making: regeneration, housing, planning, construction, economic development, architecture, urban design, landscape architecture, local government, property, surveying, civil engineering and sustainability.
The main aims of the action plan are to:
Attract new entrants and retain existing people in the core professions
Develop generic skills in areas like low carbon, climate change, empowerment, community cohesion, risk sharing, negotiation, process re-modelling, place leadership and partnership working
Ensure technical and specialist skills like planning, urban design and skills for changing economic markets are updated in line with new processes, standards, legislation and economic conditions.
Collectively, the partners will develop a framework to promote joint learning, encourage greater partnership working, share knowledge and expertise, support continuing professional development, attract more people to take up a career in the sector and create flexible career progression paths.
The process of developing the action plan has created a shared understanding of market needs and helped partners to identify duplication so that the complex provision of skills development can be simplified.
The plan builds on a number of initiatives being delivered by partner organisations. The partners will work together to:
Extend the Diploma in Construction and the Built Environment to include housing, planning, surveying and valuation skills
Provide a central courses directory and promote ‘gold standard’ training and resources
Create an online competencies framework to identify training needs for all practitioners
Embed generic skills in new learning programmes – apprenticeships, foundation degrees, undergraduate and post graduate courses and continuing professional development
Develop mentoring programmes for leaders
Explore the potential for an apprenticeship in planning
Develop and promote an online distance learning package for urban design
Develop competencies frameworks for green skills and embed carbon management into the training provided by partners
Develop and promote the learning module ‘development economics’.
Rt Hon John Healey MP, Minister for Housing and Planning, said:
“We have many dedicated professionals delivering better homes and places. This plan sets out how we can invest in better support for staff in the housing sector, offering them better skills and opportunities to succeed, and attracting new recruits.”
Gill Taylor, chief executive of the HCA Academy, said:
“No one profession or organisation can solve the skills problems hindering the delivery of better places. This action plan sees 23 organisations pulling together, identifying gaps and duplication, and co-ordinating initiatives. We will work together to ensure that people have the skills to maintain momentum in the current market conditions and are fully prepared for the upturn. We will tackle urgent priorities like climate change and reduce long-term skills gaps and workforce imbalances. Our collective aim is no less than to transform the way we plan, build and maintain communities in this country.”
A copy of the action plan can be download from the menu on the right.
The Better Skills for Better Places partners are:
Asset Skills
British Urban Regeneration Association (BURA)
Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH)
Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE)
Communities and Local Government (CLG )
Construction Industry Council (CIC)
Construction Skills
Contaminated Land: Applications in Real Environments (CL:AIRE)
The HCA Academy
HCA ATLAS
Improvement and Development Agency for Local Government (IDeA)
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