The Council for Built Environment (CBE) would publish a comprehensive skills audit report by the end of this month to look at the supply side of skills in the sector, its CEO Bheki Zulu said this week.

The report of the CBE, which encompass six professional councils in the fields of engineering, landscape, architecture, project and construction management, property valuers and quantity surveying, would evaluate the efforts that’s being taken to increase skills from school level to tertiary education. It would also touch on post-tertiary development.

“At the end of this month, we intend to publish the first-ever comprehensive skills audit report. While there have been other efforts in this direction, none has been as comprehensive as what we are now finalising,” said Zulu.

He also called on the industry to play its part in skills development. “The construction industry, when busy like now, does not have the time to train people. When not busy, they have no basis to invest in training. We are looking at instruments to entice these sectors,” he said in a statement outlining the CBE’s priorities for 2008.

The council would this year also pay more attention to greening initiatives.

“On the upside, the Eskom incident has woken us up. Africa has so much sun, but we have not exploited it enough,” Zulu said, commenting on the prospects of green building for the built environment.

The CBE would look at innovation and recognition of best practices in green buildings and would seek partnerships to look at how to further enhance the sector’s participation in efforts aimed at greening and responsibly managing the environment.

The council would also focus on capacity building and the relations among its six professional councils, public awareness campaigns and accessibility, it said.

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