Attacking the skill shortage in building

By opening a new facility that allows prisoners to build transportable modular housing, Spring Hill Corrections Facility is set to help address building and construction industry skills shortages in the Auckland region.

The NewBuild Construction facility follows the success of CIE’s building refurbishment yard where prisoners refurbish state houses for Housing New Zealand Corporation (HNZC). It will be run in conjunction with PLB Construction Group and will train and employ up to 44 prisoners at a time.

“A secure compound will be constructed next to the existing refurbishment yard in the coming weeks. A large open-fronted barn will also be built – this is the factory where houses, classrooms and other new buildings will be constructed.
 
“By doing the construction work indoors, downtime due to bad weather is reduced and quality is easier to monitor when multiple buildings are under construction in one location,” says Win McDonald, CIE Manager Business Development.

“Once a building has a roof on it, it can be moved outside for interior work to begin, creating room in the factory for another structure to be built.”

Training pathway
Skills shortages in the building industry are set to continue through to 2035. Win says, “With the Auckland population increasing at 3 per cent per year, by 2031 the demand for housing will be huge, and an additional 320,000 homes will be required. Also, there is a need for new classrooms, and marae-based housing across New Zealand.”

The project provides a training pathway for prisoners from high to low security. As they progress through their sentence prisoners with higher security classifications are able to start with classroom based learning, progress to the workshop, then the NewBuild Construction facility, on to refurbishment and out to Release to Work.

This pathway provides motivation for prisoners to engage in opportunities provided to them, and gives them realistic goals to work towards.

The building construction training is already showing its worth with prisoners on release being placed into employment opportunities in the building sector.