Background
CEMENT is developing innovative ways to network a number of key partners in Milton Keynes, Acton, Northamptonshire and Hertfordshire. The project will bring together Regional Development Agencies, Learning Skills Council, the Construction Industry Training Board, Local Authorities, Business Links and other strategic organisations, in partnership with private sector employees, to examine the issues and to find ways of tackling skills shortages in the construction industry.
New training structures will be developed and barriers to the recruitment of disadvantaged and excluded groups will be tackled. CEMENT aims to help offenders, ex-offenders, drug abusers, young people at risk, disadvantaged groups and mature workers.
Project partners and private sector employees will examine workforce and employment issues within the construction industry to understand how these shortages can be met. New training structures have been developed in prisons and by training providers to help remove the barriers to the recruitment of disadvantage groups.