BRITAIN’S construction industry is facing a skills crisis because employers are not investing in apprentice training, Ucatt warned yesterday.

The union says new figures reveal that construction’s failure to train and recruit apprentices has worsened.

The Construction Industry Training Board predicts that the industry needs over 200,000 apprenticeships over the next five years — 44,690 a year.

But Ucatt says that in 2013/14 just 8,030 people completed apprenticeships.

For the fifth successive year the number of apprentices declined.

Ucatt general secretary Steve Murphy said: “These figures show that construction training is in crisis.

“What is needed to kick-start apprentice training is strict procurement rules across the public sector which force employers bidding for these contracts to train apprentices. Companies that fail to train apprentices would be barred from bidding.”