APPENDIX 7
Letter and Memorandum from CITB—Construction
Skills
I attach the CITB-ConstructionSkills response
to the Environmental Audit Committee's consultation.
Construction is a critical industry to the whole
issue of sustainable development. The impact of the Government's
UK Sustainable Development Strategy, the Sustainable Communities
Plan, the Egan report on Skills for Sustainable Communities, the
new Sustainable Buildings Code and the Secure and Sustainable
Buildings Bill will all need to be factored into how we support
future industry skills development. Sustainable development learning
is critical to each of these areas.
We welcome future opportunities to engage with
you in this important policy area.
CITB Construction Skills Response to:
Environmental Audit Committee Inquiry 2004
We are particularly seeking views on the following
questions:
1. Has the term Education for Sustainable
Development lost its currency? Does it have any resonance with
the general public? Has the environmental message within it been
lost?
CITB ConstructionSkills response: Education
for Sustainable Development may be too narrow a term and be perceived
as something that happens within schools. Learning for sustainable
development may be a more appropriate term. CITB Construction
Skills experience as a Sector Skill Council is that at a construction
sector level there is an increase in the awareness of the need
for learning around the issues of sustainable development.
2. The DfES said in 2003 that the Sustainable
Development Action Plan was supposed to signal the start of a
process of change, identifying the most powerful levers—what
can be achieved immediately and what can be built upon. More than
a year on can it be said that that process of change has begun
and have there been any immediate achievements?
CITB ConstructionSkills response: There are
signs that change is occurring and that an infrastructure is being
established, however funding to carrying out sustainability learning,
still remains scarce.
Businesses are powerful levers for change. The
establishment of Sector Skills Councils will help improve business
learning for sustainable development. The DfES's Sustainable Development
Action Plan states that sustainable development will be covered
in all agreements with the Sector Skills Council (SSC) network
with a view to developing guidance and tools for sector development.
SSCs will include the sustainable development agenda in all partnership
agreements with key stakeholders and consider its skills implications.
An example where this is having an impact is
in construction. In November 2003, CITB Construction Skills secured
a two-year secondment from the Environment Agency to help us plan
and prepare the organisation to support industry on sustainable
development. A survey of the industry resulted in the "Build
to Last—Reviewing Sustainable Construction" report.
The feedback forms the core resource for a construction stakeholder
workshop on 30 November 2004—a workshop that will help to
shape future skills development and learning requirements for
sustainable construction. However, there will need to be sufficient
fiscal drivers and incentives for industry to make the necessary
changes in practice and to up-skill accordingly. Both policy and
legislation will help to create a "level playing field"
that industry will need to move forward.
3. Government is currently reviewing the
UK Sustainable Development Strategy. What should the Strategy
include in order to significantly strengthen the role of learning
within it?
CITB ConstructionSkills response: In CITB-ConstructionSkills
response to the Sustainable Development's Unit's "Taking
It On: Developing UK sustainable development strategy together"
we stated that learning and skills should underpin their four
priorities, if not explicitly listed as a separate priority. We
suggested supporting learning—especially in sectors such
as construction (where increased capacity to deliver sustainable
communities has been identified by Government and others), should
be a specific priority within the strategy, this would allow for
specific dedicated long-term funding to support sustainable development
learning. We also believe that education programmes will be required
and these should address critical knowledge and understanding
relating to environmental, social, economic and political issues
(see notes on Construction GCSE below). The Sustainable Development
Commission also identified education as a key driver for behaviour
change in their response to "Taking It On".
4. Does the 14—9 Working Group's report,
"14-19 Curriculum and Qualifications Reform", go far
enough? Will ESD be adequately represented if this report is used
as the basis for the forthcoming White Paper? What must be included
in the White Paper if progress is to be made to fully integrate
ESD into all aspects of learning, formal and informal?
CITB ConstructionSkills response: The final
report of the "14-19 Curriculum and Qualifications Reform"
report makes no mention of sustainability. However this report
is about frameworks and structures not content. The greater focus
on vocational learning provides an opportunity to link education
for sustainable development to the world of work. Vocational programmes
seek to combine core learning with a specialised vocational curriculum
which should include knowledge and skills relating to sustainable
development issues. As the final report states vocational programmes
. . . should be delivered only in institutions which are suitably
equipped, improved vocational learning will require increased
levels of government support. This will necessarily have implications
for the training or retraining of teachers, lecturers and assessors.
5. In response to our last inquiry the DfES
said they recognised that more could be done to embed ESD in the
school curriculum and that they would lead on strengthening ESD
links within geography, design and technology, science and citizenship.
Has there been any discernible improvement in these areas? Is
there evidence that this work has been taken forward by the DfES
and its agencies?
CITB ConstructionSkills response: Things are
beginning change on the ground, but these changes are gradual
rather than step change. While sustainability has been taught
traditionally through Geography and design and technology vocational
GCSEs offer another opportunity to inbed sustainable development
into the school curriculum. Edexcel will be offering GCSE Construction
and the Built Environment: Single Award and Double Award from
September 2005. One of the central themes running through Edexcel's
GCSE qualifications is "sustainability and the built environment"
and is a core unit of both the single and double award.
Edexcel and CITB ConstructionSkills believe
"these new GCSE awards will give students the opportunity
to learn about how important sustainable development of the built
environment is to our future and to the environment we live and
work in". Four central themes underpin the "sustainability
and the built environment" unit. These are community issues,
economic issues, design issues and site issues. These units were
designed with the support of the construction industry and also
align with the recommendations of the "14-19 Curriculum and
Qualifications Reform" report.
CITB ConstructionSkills have also been involved
in the introduction of the Sustainable Design Award scheme for
AS and A2 level students. This scheme helps students explore environmental,
economic, social and moral issues in Design and Technology, within
contexts such as sustainable building materials and housing.
6. The role of informal learning, including
youth work, work-based learning and adult and community learning,
in taking the environmental education agenda forward is key. Is
the Government doing enough in these crucial areas?
CITB ConstructionSkills response: One criticism
that is often cited of Government is that sustainable development
is spread across too many departments and this does not maximise
efforts. The creation of a Skills Alliance has the potential to
improve the situation, especially in regard to work-based and
informal learning. While DfES, DTI, DWP and HMT are included,
DEFRA is notable by its absence. The inclusion of DEFRA in the
Skills Alliance should be considered, as a priority.
In our response to "Taking It On: Developing
UK sustainable development strategy together" we noted that
"Formal and informal education programmes are needed, and
these require long-term government support", this remains
the case.
While regulation to encourage sustainable development
is growing in relation to the construction sector there is a need
to promote this to, and support it in, the industry. Fiscal measures,
such as publicly funded support for learning and awareness raising
activities, are required, as are further tax incentives to change
business practice. Government also needs to provide more leadership
in this critical area.
7. Is there any evidence to suggest that
the Government, through its stewardship of education, is getting
better at getting the environmental message across to the general
public? And is there any evidence to suggest that sufficient work
is being done at regional and local levels to support environmental
education?
CITB Construction Skills Response: While the
Skills Alliance is not focused learning for sustainable development
it does form part of its remit. The development of Sector Skills
Councils will also aid the growth of learning in this area, in
part due to increasing requirements for businesses to adopt more
sustainable practices. It is therefore important that education
for sustainable development is wider that the DfES Sustainable
Development Action Plan and must cover other Government Departments.
Some clarification of the roles of QCA, LSC, SSDA, RDAs etc in
providing and supporting sustainable development learning would
be welcome.
Alongside any regional and local levels sector
level learning is required. This means providing applied sustainable
development learning at the sector level. This has been recognised
in the construction sector with the establishment of the National
Centre for Sustainable Communities Skills, who will address these
issues. This plus the work of groups such as the Sustainability
Alliance will create a real learning environment.
Industry/Government partnerships could prove
fertile ground to advance the "environmental message"
and the learning that is a prerequisite for action.. These partnerships
can act at national, regional and local levels through existing
infrastructures and the Regional Development Agencies.
8. Are there sufficient resources available
to deliver the Government's commitment to education for sustainable
development?
CITB Construction Skills Response: We recognise
that government spending is a matter of allocating scarce resources
but we have identified (above) three areas where more public funding
is a prerequisite to deliver sustainable development learning.
Funding is required to support:
— the greater vocational pathway focus
of the "14—19 Curriculum and Qualifications Reform"
report and the links between schools, further education work based
training.
— Publicly funded support for learning
and skills/knowledge development as well as awareness raising
activities at the business and sector level will "pull"
the demand for sustainable development learning as they come to
terms with new demands. This is in line with the "demand
pull", rather than "supply push" outlined in the
Government Skills Strategy.
— Public funding for informal learning,
for example site based tool box talks and training is an efficient
way to promote the sustainability message and provide immediate
and measurable results that the learning has impact.
The Government's Pre Budget speech on 2 December
will indicate the spending intentions in this important area.
It has already been announced that £190 million will be allocated
to financing time off for employees and skills training, which
may include some element of sustainable development learning.
This may suggest that Government spending on business/sector learning
for sustainable development is not likely to increase in this
spending round and therefore resources will remain tight.
A national funding strategy which brings together
both government agencies such as the QCA and LSC and Government
departments is required to bring joined up government to bear
on this essential area of learning. While agreement is required
at national level, delivery models must address regional and local
issues.
November 2004
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