New training programmes in Offaly will help fast track housing construction

A NEW training programme based in Offaly will be crucial to addressing Ireland's need for housing development.

Courses providing essential skills in modern methods of construction (MMC) will be offered by the Laois & Offaly Education and Training Board (LOETB) at its National Construction Training Campus in Mount Lucas.

The launch of the MMC programme on Thursday by the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, James Lawless TD, heard that modern methods will help fast track new builds.

Minister Lawless acknowledged the skills shortage in Ireland at present and said that a widespread adoption of MMC will result in swifter construction and requires fewer workers.

“MMC will allow us to be clever and focussed in terms of our efforts in such a way that our workforce requirements will be a little bit lower which means we can bridge that gap more quickly,” said the Minister.

However, 69,000 new entrants into training will still be needed and the national centre in Mount Lucas will continue to play an important role.

After touring the training centre where skills in a range of disciplines are taught, including machine driving, scaffolding, retrofitting and crane operation, Minister said the work of the LOETB in Mount Lucas is “key to all of the objectives we have as a Government”.

“These training initiatives upskill the sector and broaden and deepen knowledge across the sector which are so important that we in Government and the State want to do in terms of construction, housing, industry and in terms of having the talent and the workforce available,” he told an audience which included stakeholders from across the construction sector, including the Construction Industry Federation.

“The development of MMC is an essential way to boost construction industry innovation and to support the industry's capability to deliver on things like Housing for All, the National Development Plan and Climate Action Plan targets.”

He said the training being offered will be “agile” and would be delivered in spite of the challenge presented by full employment.

Said the Minister: “It's not easy to persuade and employer or a worker to take time off for training for a number of days or a number of weeks.”

Minister Lawless said he was involved in the negotiations for the Programme for Government and he noted that continued investment in the National Construction Training Campus to address future demands is specifically mentioned in writing in the document.

“You are one of the few locations that's specifically called out in the Programme for Government.”

Andrew Brownlee, chief executive of Solas, the further education and training State body which funds the National Construction Training Campus told the launch that “unless we upskill and reskill throughout our careers then we're not going to have a chance as an economy and as a society.”

By 2030 Ireland needs an additional 560,000 adult upskilling places and he said of the Mount Lucas campus: “This campus is showcasing what the future skills landscape needs to be about.”

Mr Brownlee added: “The adoption of modern methods of construction is going to be so critical in meeting our housing targets and also our infrastructure needs.”

He appealed to all present to inform everyone about the available of the training.

“We look forward to you spreading the word about these exciting courses.”

Cllr Neil Feighery, chair, Laois & Offaly Education and Training Board (LOETB) said his board had teamed up with the technological universities to offer “educational pathways to citizens that were previously a pipedream”.

Cllr Feighery said: “The growth of Mount Lucas is very much to the fore of LOETB's ambitions. Since 2016 the National Construction Training Campus has evolved from the provision of construction skills certification alone to providing Ireland's first scaffolding apprenticeship, it first formwork opportunities and traineeships and its first and now second NZEB (near zero energy building) and retrofit mobile training rig.”

The MMC national demonstration park will be located in Mount Lucas and will be completed in the next few months.

“It is the can-do approach that has been seen in Mount Lucas trainees that has increased from 100 when LOETB assumed the management and responsibility for the site in 2016 to over 4,000 trainees today and 60% of the national retrofit target for 2024.”

Joe Cunningham, chief executive, LOETB said collaboration with other organisations had been key to the success of the campus and noted that 30 training programmes are being offered in Mount Lucas.

“We've had participants in training programmes here from every county in the country,” said Mr Cunningham.

Also present at the launch were Minister of State Marian Harkin, Deputy Tony McCormack, Deputy Carol Nolan, Cllrs Fergus McDonnell, Claire Murray-Smale, Sean O'Brien and Oliver Bryant and Hubert Fitzpatrick, director general of the CIF.