The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) has published its business plan for 2019-2021 and said that it has listened to industry’s demands for the plan to become more strategic and better focused.
The plan sets out solutions to what CITB has identified as the “Big Six” skills challenges facing the UK’s construction industry.
These are:
- Ensuring construction is an attractive career destination;
- Delivering a site-ready workforce;
- Growing apprenticeships;
- Converting learners into workers;
- Helping SMEs;
- Boosting the capacity of vocational training.
The plan includes the announcement of a nationwide campaign to be launched this year, which will aim to change attitudes to attract new entrants to the workforce; support for the creation of 20 more on-site skills hubs across Wales, Scotland, and rural England; activity that, by 2025, will deliver a 63% increase in the number of apprentices joining construction and a 110% increase in the diversity of applicants; a doubling of the number of people turning construction training into construction jobs; a plan to grow CITB’s Skills and Training Fund to help SMEs; and adding capacity to deliver an additional 22,000 vocational qualifications per year.
In her introduction to the plan, CITB Chief Executive Sarah Beale writes: “This plan shows how CITB will make a significant and measurable difference in site readiness, increase apprenticeship diversity and numbers, improve the conversion rate from learning to employment, and provide even more help to make training simpler for small and micro employers.”