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Places for People launches training scheme to tackle skills shortage
Large landlord Places for People (PfP) has set up a new training programme for the housing and construction sector, aiming to train over 200 apprentices in its first year.
The programme, named PfP Thrive, will deliver bespoke training to address the skills shortage, with a dedicated academy due to open in spring 2025.
It aims to provide compliance training, trade skills apprenticeships and leadership development, with a focus on repairs, maintenance and retrofit skills, the 240,000-home landlord said.
PfP Thrive will operate from 20 sites across the UK and has a target of training more than 1,000 people in technical courses in its first year.
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The scheme comes after the launch of Inside Housing’s Housing Hires campaign, which aims to promote the social housing sector as a place to work and supports people to find and develop careers at housing associations and councils.
Its central hub and new academy building will be in Derby, with the first apprentices arriving from autumn 2025.
Tom Arey, director of PfP Thrive, said: “The housing crisis has been hanging over us for far too long, but we also have a more recent threat staring us in the face – a worsening skills shortage which is damaging our ability to deliver today and putting at risk what we know we have to deliver in the future.”
Mr Arey said that by 2032, more than 565,000 tradespeople will have retired from the industry, “leaving a gaping hole of some 50,000 electricians, 45,000 carpenters and 40,000 plumbers”.
“This doesn’t even consider the skills we need to retrofit our homes and the use of new technology or innovations that are coming down the track,” he said.
“PfP Thrive is here to tackle the industry’s growing skills shortage, preparing the next generation of ambitious professionals who are fired up and ready to grow.”
Greg Reed, group chief executive of PfP, added that the new initiative was “about progress, growth and success”, values that “embody our wider purpose to create and support thriving communities”.
In July, the London Homes Coalition revealed that the capital is facing a shortfall of 2,600 workers to deliver asset management and development commitments over the next five years.
Last month, PfP revealed that the landlord’s spend on repairs, maintenance and improvements of existing homes had increased by 45%, from £151m in 2022-23 to £219m in the past year.
It is also working with NatWest and British Gas on a pilot project aimed at simplifying the retrofitting process.
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