CITB has published its first Business Plan since Tim Balcon became Chief Executive, setting out how it will approach its role in supporting the industry.
The plan shows how it will be spending £764.3million on training in construction up to 2025.
2022-23
- £233.2 million - Total investment
- £134.6 million - Direct employer funding
- £84.9 million - Providing products and services
- £13.8m - Other support
2022-2025
- £764.3 million - Total investment
- £466.8 million - Direct employer funding
- £255.2 million - Providing products and services
- £42.4m - Other support
Tim Balcon says: “While progress has been made, the construction industry has faced significant challenges in recent years, including inflation, rising fuel prices, the pandemic and Brexit, to name a few. In many ways the industry is still experiencing and feeling the impact of these events, which we know has shifted priorities greatly and pushed the demand for skills to the forefront.
“It’s essential now more than ever that efforts are focused on helping to alleviate those pressures and address the key needs of industry.”
CITB says its new Business Plan responds to construction’s anticipated need for an additional 50,000 workers every year, which training can help recruit. It says its initiatives are aimed not only at inspiring people outside of the industry to choose construction as their career, but also upskilling and retaining those already working in the industry.
The three challenges set out by CITB are:
- Responding to the skills demands
- Developing the capacity and capability of construction training provision
- Addressing future skills needs.
To get a better understanding of what the future skills needs will entail, CITB plans to spend £2.1million on getting a better understanding of construction’s changing environment as it responds to the requirement for Net Zero carbon emissions, digitisation and modern methods of construction. It says this research will help focus CITB’s work on interventions that have the greatest impact and shaping new training and standards development.
Following the findings of January’s Rethinking Recruitment report, CITB’s Business Plan details how it will invest in supporting apprenticeships and building bridges with further education.
Initiatives such as SkillBuild, work experience, taster events, and the currently 350-strong STEM Ambassador network aim to inspire more young people than ever to consider construction as a career. In addition, CITB will collaborate with employers on the Go Construct website and promote the wide range of careers construction has to offer.
CITB wants to create even more accessible routes into construction, focusing on apprenticeships alongside on-site experiences and the future rollout of occupational traineeships. It is making £60.3million available in direct grants to employers who take on apprentices.
CITB also wants to make it easier to access the right training at a time and place that is right for the trainee. To that end it will:
- Invest £25.9million in direct training delivery to enable the continuation of core skills training and training provision in niche and at-risk skills through CITB’s National Construction Colleges
- Support more than 300,000 Health Safety & Environment tests over the next year, ensuring there is good availability of tests in as many locations as possible, bringing assurance to employers that their workforce can keep themselves and those around them safe
- Offer enhanced grant support for priority skills such as rainscreen cladding and drylining.
You can read and download the full Business Plan here.
There's more about training in stonemasonry in the next issue of Natural Stone Specialist magazine. Don't miss out, subscribe to receive every issue... click here.