Shortage or Mismatch: Reframing the Skills Challenge for Offsite Construction Delivery and Resilience

Abstract

The global construction sectors are facing a persistent skills shortage presenting it as one of the most pressing challenges around the world. This has led to a worsening global housing crisis, housing unaffordability, continuous productivity declines and predicted severe negative impacts over the next decades along with an increased push towards factory-made buildings. As such, this study seeks to answer the research question: “how do skills mismatches and shortages affect offsite construction delivery and resilience?” The research adopted a qualitative approach to conduct a cross-country analysis of offsite construction skills in the Australian and the United Kingdom construction sectors. A critical literature review was conducted using secondary data collected from industry bodies and global reports to identify comparable employment status measures and offsite construction adoption. This was followed by an evaluation of factors that affect the uptake of offsite construction and its resilience over a prolonged period. Some of these factors include regulatory push towards industrialisation, migration policies, training, education and employment pathways to join construction from non-cognate backgrounds as well as the impact of significant workforce employed at micro, small and medium construction enterprises. This research presents initial findings with practical implications for understanding how offsite construction skills can be improved by understanding skills shortages and mismatches.