A PILNING-based construction firm is combating a potential lack of skilled builders in the future by relying on a hardcore of home-grown site specialists.

Helm Construction is hoping its award-winning training programme will see them through what is forecast to be the biggest construction boom in years.

Responding to the latest sector forecasts from the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), managing director Paul Evans said Helm was determined to train its own bricklayers, carpenters and plasterers rather than bringing in often less qualified or untrained labourers or sub-contractors.

He said: “The CITB is predicting the South West Construction industry could create a further 6,000 jobs by 2019 - but the sting in the tail is that the recovery could be threatened by the sheer lack of necessary skills.

“But we are determined to ensure we have fully-trained personnel available to cope with the upswing – to ensure we don’t get left by the wayside as the recovery gathers pace.

“This is where our in-house training programme is paying dividends, providing us with well-trained and highly motivated staff who know us as well as we know them.”

The latest upbeat report from the CITB said growth locally could hit 3.6 per cent from 2014 to 2019 fuelled by a number of nationally significant projects such as Hinkley Point C, Filton Airfield and Bristol Airport.

Paul Evans added: “We recognised the recovery would begin in the construction sector and were determined to ensure we were fully prepared to meet the steep increase in demand from our own resources rather than rely on less well qualified workers.”