Skills

The government has confirmed that the Farmer review of the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) will be published at the end of the summer. There had been fears that the delayed report could be buried, as it had been commissioned by the previous government. Construction News understands that the Farmer…

Contractors and other construction businesses are to be consulted on the cost of the Construction Industry Training Board’s (CITB’s) training levy. The board announced yesterday (29 July) that it would be restarting consensus engagement in September on levy proposals for 2026-29. It will canvass views on how funding for training…

The government’s planned new skills quango will partner rather than replace the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), industry leaders have predicted. Following the announcement this week of early details of what Skills England will do, senior figures who will work with the new body said they did not expect radical…

The Northern Ireland government has launched its own skills academy in a bid to beat the shortage of civil engineers. The new Civil Engineering Skills Academy will target school leavers to fill 48 places to become trainee civil engineering assistants. The academy was created by the Department for Infrastructure as…

One of the industry’s leading training centres for apprentices is making progress in upgrading its teaching and support, according to the education watchdog. Ofsted revealed that the National Construction College (NCC) in Norfolk made a number of changes, including to its curriculum, marking and careers guidance, after being given a…

Two of the UK’s biggest construction contractors have won plaudits for promoting gender equality within their businesses. Costain and Willmott Dixon, which placed 12th and 19th respectively in the most recent CN100 list, were both named in The Times’ annual Top 50 Employers for Gender Equality list. The list recognises…

The UK will struggle to radically improve the energy efficiency of its building stock due to a lack of “green collar” construction workers, according to Turner & Townsend.  A new report published by the consultant says in-demand green trades now command annual salaries of £134,000, with wages having soared by…

Construction bodies have slammed Nigel Farage for “laughable” claims about migration and the sector. Industry leaders dismissed Farage’s claim that the construction sector does not need any workers from abroad and the “myth” that builders are “unskilled”. They described remarks by the Reform UK leader as “incorrect”, arguing that he…

The Conservative Party’s election pledge to provide 100,000 new apprenticeships by 2029 has received a cold response. A leading construction academic dismissed the £885m plan as “nonsense”, while a senior executive at one contractor described it as “simply smoke and mirrors”. If it wins the 4 July general election, the…

The construction industry needs more than 250,000 extra workers to cope with output growth over the next five years, the sector’s training board has said. Around 50,000 extra workers will be needed each year from 2024 to 2028 to meet demand, according to the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB). This…