CITB launches free inclusive recruitment training for SMEs
The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) has launched new, free digital training modules that are designed to make recruitment more inclusive, accessible, and effective.
CITB established the Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity (EDI) Commission to help drive lasting change across the construction industry by improving fairness and ensuring people from all backgrounds can thrive. Running until March 2026, the Commission brings together industry leaders and partners to embed inclusive practices that help construction attract new talent and retain skilled workers.
The training is hosted on the SME Community Hub, an online platform from the Supply Chain Sustainability School (SCSS). The Hub hosts tailored, easy to navigate resources for SME employers that help to make training accessible for businesses that may not have a dedicated in-house role for this area. The Hub also offers advice, guidance and training materials across a variety of topics such as sustainability, procurement and Fairness, Inclusion and Respect (FIR). In total, it has over 5,000 resources and 550 specifically for FIR.
The launch of the new training modules will help people already in the industry, but CITB wants to ensure that the wider construction workforce is more diverse also. With six months still to go on the EDI Commission, the number of unique companies trained on EDI materials has already surpassed the project end target by over 36%. The number of those employers who are SMEs / micro has also surpassed the end target by 42%, with 1,985 unique SME / micro employers trained on the materials. So far 22,459 unique individuals have been trained, surpassing the target of 14,800 by 52%.
Nadine Pemberton Jn Baptiste, Legal, Governance and Compliance Executive Director at CITB said:
“Across the industry, we need to establish a culture that ensures it seeks to understand and meet the needs of people of all backgrounds. We must also establish a new norm by demonstrating that we can retain people from different backgrounds by offering flexible workplaces and inclusive working conditions.
“The launch of these new, free digital training modules will help the industry achieve this. We need over 47,000 new workers every year to meet forecasted demand. The only way we can truly address the workforce gap is by attracting more people from more diverse backgrounds to careers in construction.”
Christina Scant, Group Head of Human Resources (HR), Core Highways said:
“As a smaller business, we often don’t have access to large HR teams or EDI specialists, so this training gives smaller businesses like us access to expert advice, guidance, training materials, templates and a point of contact for all things fairness, inclusion and respect.
“My team love the FIR resources to help support, guide and upskill.”