The construction industry commits considerable financial resources to recruiting and training individuals to become skilled employees. The return on this investment will be wholly or partially lost if an individual leaves the industry either during or shortly after their training. As the industry continues to recover from recession there are already emerging signs of skills shortages in certain occupations in parts of the UK, consequently the importance of ensuring that the right people are encouraged into the industry, and are retained once there, is considerable.
In order to improve its role in promoting the industry and helping employers to recruit new entrants, CITB needs to understand why the recruitment process can go wrong in either encouraging people unsuited to roles in the industry to join, or not retaining the right people once they have joined.