Construction is a labour-intensive industry, which places heavy reliance upon the skills of its workforce. These skills need updating continually as many of the trades involved in the industry become increasingly specialized. During the 1980s, there was a rapid rise in construction activity within the UK, followed by a sudden but short-lived boom accompanied by skill shortages. The construction industry is now experiencing a deeper and longer lasting recession than originally predicted, resulting in valuable employees in all sections of the industry being lost - a high proportion of whom will not return to the construction industry. The construction industry is predicted to grow in the period after the recession by an average of 3% per annum until the year 2001. With this growth the industry is expected to experience considerable skill shortages in both traditional and new skill areas. Construction is in a period of rapid cultural change accompanied by the introduction of new technologies and new ways of organizing construction activities. Powerful national and multinational clients will continue to influence the choice of these technologies through their demands for faster construction times. The construction industry will continue to face increased competition in search of eligible recruits to train accordingly. Employment within the construction industry will continue to move away from large and medium sized firms to small firms and working proprietors. In the 1980s, self-employment and the use of specialist labour-only sub-contractors increased as training levels declined. This trend will hamper the industry's ability to train people for future skill needs. This paper aims to assist interested parties in the construction industry understand and realize the importance of labour resource issues and the need for long-term planning of labour resource requirements, so allowing them to train and retrain people to address the predicted skill shortages

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An aggregate supply model is presented for craft trainee entrants to the UK construction sector using annual data for the period 1976-1990. The theoretical framework used to formulate the equation was based on the human capital approach to analysing labour supply, as applied to new entrants to the engineering sector. In particular, the paper tests the hypothesis that the proportion of school-leavers choosing to train as construction operatives depends on the real craft wage and the long-term prospects of the construction industry. Co-integration was used to produce a long-run relationship between intakes, real wages, output and other variables. The supply equation was then reduced to a more parsimonious representation. The final restricted form of the model was tested against various diagnostic statistical criteria. The real craft wage and output were found to be the main factors determining the choice between training as a construction craft operative and any other job. In addition, demographic trends and socioenvironmental factors such as the image of the industry were found to have a strong effect on the supply of new entrants

In recent years the Large Scale Engineering (LSE) construction sector in Europe has seen profound change. This is mainly due to increasing competitive pressures from the United States and the Asian–Pacific countries which has led in turn to increased pressures to improve competitiveness, productivity and client satisfaction. Lack of understanding of client's requirements hinders achieving such goals especially with the increasing trends of executing LSE projects in a ‘virtual enterprise’ environment. Different parties within the construction process need to understand and fulfil client's business and information requirements. Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) vendors and developers also need to understand clients requirements of systems and to align their products to them. This paper reports on findings from a study within the eLSEwise project to identify the emerging clients’ business and ICT needs within the LSE construction industry and to identify the changes in clients’ relationships with the supply chain and the gaps in ICT provision.

In recent years the Large Scale Engineering (LSE) construction sector in Europe has seen profound change. This is mainly due to increasing competitive pressures from the United States and the Asian‐Pacific countries which has led in turn to increased pressures to improve competitiveness, productivity and client satisfaction. Lack of understanding of client's requirements hinders achieving such goals especially with the increasing trends of executing LSE projects in a ‘virtual enterprise’ environment. Different parties within the construction process need to understand and fulfil client's business and information requirements. Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) vendors and developers also need to understand clients requirements of systems and to align their products to them. This paper reports on findings from a study within the eLSEwise project to identify the emerging clients' business and ICT needs within the LSE construction industry and to identify the changes in clients' relationships with the supply chain and the gaps in ICT provision.