Construction has started on a flagship multi-skill apprenticeship training hub at Barking Riverside, London, which will boost house-building skills, create local jobs and support the delivery of new homes across the capital.
Backed by a £100 million investment from the National House Building Council (NHBC), the UK’s leading provider of new home warranties and insurance, the new NHBC Training Hub forms part of a planned national network of 12 multi-skill facilities.
Together, NHBC’s hubs will train up to 3,000 apprentices each year in the trades most critical to house building, significantly boosting the construction workforce across London, as well as in Barking and Dagenham.
Designed to replicate real site conditions, the facility will train 200 apprentices each year in bricklaying, groundworks, site carpentry and timber frame erection in as little as 14 months. The hub is due to open this autumn and comes at a crucial time, as the UK construction sector is forecast to need an additional 239,300 workers by 2029 to meet existing demand.
Barking Riverside, East London’s largest development, has been selected as the site for the capital’s first NHBC Training Hub. With planning recently approved in principle for up to 20,000 new homes, the scale of the project creates a unique opportunity to train local people to help deliver them. The aim is to build a skilled workforce and support the local economy across Barking Riverside and the wider borough, an ambition supported by the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham.
Located on River Road, at a prominent entry route to the Barking Riverside development, the training hub will be two-thirds the size of a football pitch and is being delivered in partnership with house builder Bellway and Barking Riverside Limited, the master developer behind the wider scheme. The project is also backed by £1 million in funding from the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB).
Roger Morton, Director of Business Change at NHBC, said: “This training hub is exactly what London needs right now. Without more skilled workers, we simply won’t build the homes people need. Building 10,000 homes requires around 2,500 bricklayers, 2,500 groundworkers and 1,000 carpenters and we don’t have enough.
“That’s why NHBC’s £100 million investment matters. Our network of 12 multi-skill training hubs will deliver up to 3,000 apprentices a year, trained in real site conditions from day one. This will create site-ready tradespeople in as little as 14 months, which is twice as fast as more traditional education routes, helping to speed up the delivery of quality new homes we urgently need.
“But training alone isn’t enough. Builders and subcontractors must take on apprentices to turn this into a workforce that can deliver at scale.
“This is also about creating skilled, well-paid careers for people from all backgrounds. Construction offers real progression, with bricklayers earning £50,000 a year on average. The bottom line is simple. If we don’t fix the skills shortage, we won’t fix the housing shortage. Our hub at Barking Riverside shows how we can tackle both by investing in skills, creating opportunity and building the homes where they are needed most.”
