The British
construction sector is set to receive a £17.8m investment to support employers
in training and retraining more skilled workers to help the industry face the
skills challenges of the future.
CITB Onsite
Experience Commission will help the construction industry tackle the skills gap
by providing 18,000 site-ready workers and help it to grow more of its own
workforce. The industry is being invited to apply for funding over the
coming months.
“This major
investment will build on the success of the Construction Skills Fund and
represents an historic investment in training a site-ready workforce for
construction employers across England, Scotland and Wales,” said CITB Chief
Executive Sarah Beale, announcing the new money in Ipswich at an industry-led
conference on delivering sustainable homes.
Beale continued:
“Onsite Experience comes at a critical time for construction when it will need
to grow more of its own workforce. Within CITB’s ‘Big Six’ initiatives,
this element supports British construction to recruit its future workforce,
other attraction related activity includes a major careers campaign and
substantially increased support for employers taking on apprentices.”
CITB’s Construction
Skills Network report shows that construction requires 168,500 skilled people
to enter the industry over the next five years.
“Meeting demand for
new homes and investing in infrastructure requires more skilled people in
construction,” Sarah Beale continued. “We face the perfect storm of an
uncertain post-Brexit migration system, and an ageing workforce with many set
to retire in the near future. It is therefore essential that the industry
attracts, trains, and retains new talent wherever it can be found to ensure
construction isn’t hampered by a shortage of site-ready workers.”
Over the next three
years 20 new hubs will be established on construction sites across England,
Scotland and Wales, tailored to provide training in trades where particular
shortages have been identified and connecting new talent with educators and
employers. Each hub will develop links between employers, colleges and local
government to meet locally identified skills needs.
Many of the hubs
will be in rural and “left behind” areas that have also not benefitted from the
earlier and complementary Construction Skills Fund (CSF). They will draw on
lessons learned from the CSF, which has already exceeded many of its targets.
Sarah Beale
concluded: “Britain urgently needs more construction workers, and more
opportunities for people from every background and every region. I am confident
that by making its largest ever investment in the onsite experience commission,
CITB can provide the construction industry with the modern workforce it needs
to become more inclusive, more sustainable, and construct a better Britain.”
