After a series of roles in various sectors, Clive Dickin found his rhythm by returning to construction
In 2017, National Access & Scaffolding Confederation (NASC) boss Clive Dickin was struggling to relax on a beach in the south of France. Following a spate of terrorism incidents, the pressures of his then job as chief executive of the Association of Air Ambulances were mounting.
“There’s a lot of amazing things that happen [in that sector] but it’s quite a sorrowful world,” Dickin says. He decided to move back into construction, where he had previously worked in roles including chief executive of the Association of Plumbing & Heating Contractors.
Two-and-a-half years as commercial director at the National Federation of Builders followed, before he became commercial director at the Institute of Export & International Trade. “I was afforded an opportunity to work at an organisation tackling Brexit, a small event that happened which made international trade extremely relevant,” he jokes. “I realised, though, that I didn’t really enjoy anything other than the construction [sector].”
Dickin has spent almost two years in charge at the NASC. But he has not escaped the fall-out from Brexit, with the Leave camp’s promise of delivering a trained domestic workforce failing to materialise. In January, Dickin asked the government to ease immigration rules to fill gaps in the scaffolding workforce.
Without such a move, Dickin believes the government will struggle to meet its housing and infrastructure targets. In December, the NASC announced it would use £1m in government funding to provide scaffolding training through Construction Industry Scaffolders Record Scheme (CISRS) bootcamps. He says applications to the government for another £3m are in the pipeline. But it will be at least three years before the initiative bears fruit, he adds.
“The bootcamps programme will deliver some of the skills needed,” he says. “But we are going to have to consider allowing immigration to close the [immediate] gap.” There are no shortcuts on training, he adds. “It ta kes three years to get to a part two CISRS. To be a carded black hat, you need four or five years. You cannot create this workforce overnight.”
He worries that in its rush to meet its ambitions, some in government are ignoring the importance of training. “I’m deeply concerned by some of the rhetoric from some government ministers,” he says. “It seems [they think] standards can be ignored,” he says.
Dickin is confident that by June, NASC will be an accredited assessor for the Common Assessment Standard (CAS), which pre-qualifies firms as meeting competence standards for work. “If you add the CAS to the existing NASC standards for scaffolding,” he says, “you have a very powerful tool as a client to be assured that…they’re operating at the highest quality of scaffolding access.”
Dickin’s internal reforms of the NASC are helping to drive such initiatives, as well as last year’s extension of the body’s software design tool for tube and fitting scaffolding (TG20) to system scaffolding (TG30).
He has also scrapped the old system of committees feeding into a council once a year. “That rhythm needed changing. Moving to a business where the executive makes decisions, with a supportive board, you naturally are making a lot quicker decisions.”
Judging by his bullish tone, Dickin’s 2025 summer holiday is likely to be untroubled by self-doubt.