Skills People Group Blog

We are thrilled to announce that we will be launching our new Introduction to Construction with Domestic Retrofit programme on 21 November at our Rotherham Skills Academy (RSA). Construction Skills People, which forms part of the Skills People Group, are a training provider based in Chesterfield but operating five construction skills academies in Rotherham, Sheffield, Nottingham, Worksop and Derby. In 2021, we were successful in being awarded an Adult Education Budget (AEB) contract by the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA), to deliver funded programmes to the unemployed (Lot 1) and to employed learners who are resident in South Yorkshire. During the academic year 2021/22, we engaged with 135 unemployed learners and delivered a range of programmes in construction to support individuals progressing into a career in the construction sector or undertaking further learning with stakeholders such as the RNN. Approximately 60% of learners progressed into employment or further...

Scientific evidence shows that global temperatures are increasing, the environment is constantly changing, and that human greenhouse gas emissions are largely to blame. According to the Local Authority Domestic Retrofit Handbook (2021) "Domestic properties account for 30% of energy use and around 19% of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK. A significant contribution by any stretch of the imagination. Under the Climate Change Act 2008, the UK needs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 80% of 1990 levels by 2050. As a nation, we are equally challenged to reduce carbon emissions and protect our environment, but to achieve the zero-carbon economy we must have a strategy in place to eradicate these harmful emissions, arising from the government’s pledge in March 2021 to invest £3bn into energy efficiency upgrades through domestic retrofitting (The Retrofit Academy, 2021) So, what is Domestic Retrofitting? Simply put, domestic retrofit is the process of making improvement or modificatio...