It is more important than ever for companies working in the construction industry to provide training for their employees, so that they can support motivated workers who may lack the necessary skills to excel. This is because the construction industry is facing a skills shortage in many countries around the world, including the US, the UK and Australia.
That’s bad news for construction companies, as during a time of strong growth, they are struggling to attract qualified workers to expand their business to full potential.
Setting up training and apprenticeship programmes can help construction companies overcome the skills gap problem that is holding back their business.
Besides providing training to develop their own skilled workforce, it is also a good idea for construction industry employers to provide health and safety training for their workers. Each year, too many workers are still injured and even killed on the job.
Since capable employees are crucial for running a successful construction company, you want to minimise the risk of losing any employee for any amount of time due to a work accident. Especially when you invest in employee skills training, you want to protect this investment with adequate health and safety training.
Health and safety training is one of the most effective ways of reducing work accidents. It’s also been shown that health and safety training can improve employee retention.
In-house training can help give your construction company a competitive edge, but it does not come without serious challenges.
The Cost of Training
Training is expensive, not just due to the cost of organising the training itself, but also because of the loss of productive time if training takes place during work hours. Many construction companies have realised however that, when organised well, the benefits of organising their own training far outweigh the costs.
One way to reduce the costs of training is through the utilisation of eLearning. While most construction industry skills are difficult to teach entirely through eLearning, large parts of training programs can be taught through online learning in a much more cost-effective way. Online learning also offers more flexibility, allowing the student to learn at any time from anywhere they have an internet connection.
Implementing a Successful Training Programme
Setting up an effective training program is not easy, which is why it’s highly recommended to partner with an expert training provider that can help you design and develop an affordable, but top-notch training program.
Below you’ll find a number of training providers that have construction industry experience.
UK Sector Specialists – Construction Industry Training Providers Ltd (CITP)
CITP is a UK training provider that offers an extensive range of training courses for the construction and related industries. Besides providing comprehensive, nationally recognised training programs, they also offer several health and safety training courses.
The company regularly organises public training sessions, which are conducted at their training centres in Reading, Berkshire and Basingstoke, Hampshire. They also provide an onsite training service that can be organised at a location of your choice.
For more information about CITP’s training services, go to: http://www.constructiontrainingproviders.co.uk.
UK eLearning Developers – Day One Technologies
Based near Leeds in West Yorkshire, Day One Technologies are one of the leading elearning companies in the UK, providing bespoke content development services and easy to use learning platforms for a range of sectors – including Construction.
Here you can read about how they helped NBS Chorus with Construction Software Training to improve customer onboarding.
Day One created an interactive, immersive learning experience for users of the NBS collaborative building software, accessible via a bespoke LMS. This took the burden off their sales and customer service teams, allowing them to focus on growing revenues.
US Providers – The National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER)
The NCCER is a not-for-profit construction industry training provider that offers more than 70 different construction training courses and assessments at over 4,000 training centres throughout the US. Training topics include:
- Alternative energy
- Construction craft labourer
- Construction technology
- Masonry
- Plumbing
- Welding
- etc.
They also have an eLearning solution available called NCCERconnect, which currently offers about 20 online courses, with new titles being added each year.
Check out http://www.nccer.org/ for more information about the training programs that are offered and to find a training centre near you.
eLearning Consultancy from Learning Light
Are you looking to start your journey in elearning or enhance your existing processes, technologies or content?
Learning Light have decades of combined experience in supporting organisations of all sizes and across most industries. Please give us a call on +44 (0)114 307 2357 for a no-obligations discussion of your requirements.
UK construction courses online – Virtual College
Virtual College is a leading eLearning provider that offers both off-the-shelf and bespoke training for a wide range of industries. They offer a range of online courses for the construction sector, including workplace health and safety, BS7671, wiring and welding safety, and more.
Find out more about Virtual College’s construction industry courses at https://www.virtual-college.co.uk/expertise/construction.
If the available online courses are not sufficient for your organisation’s training needs, you may want to hire their content developers to help you create unique training for your workforce.
Online course provider – Helmsman Services Ltd
Helmsman Services has over 14 years of experience in providing instructor-led construction industry training. In 2014, they came to the conclusion that eLearning could help provide training to construction company employees that don’t have the time to attend regular classroom training.
They started offering online construction training courses through the “eLearning for Construction” trading name and currently have a wide range of construction eLearning courses on offer.
Training is delivered through their learning management system and can be accessed via desktop computers, laptops or tablets.
Find out more about their courses and pricing at http://elearningforconstruction.co.uk/.
Construction Industry LMS Provider – BlueVolt
BlueVolt is one of the leading providers of learning management systems for the manufacturing, construction and service industries. Features of their LMS include:
- Performance management functionalities that include student progress tracking, performance incentives and custom course completion certificates
- User-friendly administration
- User-friendly mobile interface
- Extensive reporting features
For more information about BlueVolt’s LMS, have a look at: https://www.bluevolt.com/features/.
More construction industry website and resources
http://www.construct-ed.com/5-benefits-of-elearning-in-the-construction-industry/
https://www.citb.co.uk/documents/research/training-skills-survey-reports_tcm17-27270.pdf
http://www.hse.gov.uk/treework/training-is-important.htm
http://www.uri.edu/research/lrc/research/papers/Brum-Commitment.pdf
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Av Srivastava
eLearning Marketing Consultant
About Av
Av Srivastava is an elearning writer and marketing consultant who has worked with a range of learning solution providers in the UK and worldwide.
He researches and writes about the latest and best elearning solutions to help buyers choose the ideal company for their needs.
He also helps great elearning companies to understand their perfect customers, get the visibility they deserve, and develop steady streams of inbound enquiries.
