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Are you Britain’s best bulldozer driver? A world-class wheel loader operator? The search is on for Operator of the Year, with £10,000 in prize money up for grabs in a dedicated all-day festival of construction.

2022 was a tough year. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was arguably the biggest conflict since World War Two. Meanwhile at home, rising inflation, interest rates, and a cost-of-living crisis took hold. The global and domestic upheaval impacted many industries including construction, one of the UK’s biggest growth drivers. This turbulence is reflected in our new Construction Skills Network (CSN) report.

Against a backdrop of economic challenge, rising materials and labour costs, new figures from the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) reveal that almost 225,000 extra workers will be required to meet UK construction demand by 2027.

This year, CITB has paid out over £5m more in grants and supported nearly 700 more employers compared to the same period in 2021. As we draw closer to the end of 2022, CITB data reveals that almost 12,500 businesses have been supported in the form of grants, with £54.6m paid out to date (Apr – Nov 2022), and more than half paid to small or micro businesses.

One word explains why modern fire safety skills are more vital than ever for every UK construction worker: Grenfell. The review recommended action to improve the lack of basic fire safety awareness in the construction and buildings maintenance workforce. CITB’s new fire safety eCourse is a response to that recommendation.

Industry input on CITB’s new plant standards and grants will raise everyone’s game writes CITB’s Emily Tilling. The changes, announced in July, come into effect in January 2023 and will have a wide-reaching impact on the construction industry.

CITB has announced changes to its plant standards to standardise training and testing requirements across the construction industry.

As we enter the new financial year, CITB data reveals that almost 14,000 businesses have been supported in the form of grants, with over £77m paid out in the last year, and over 45% of grant spent went to small and micro businesses.

Government investment is needed to support skills in the coming year to prevent a generation of talent being lost, CITB outlines today as it publishes a new construction industry forecast.

The outlook for the future has been, understandably, hard to predict, but today we can provide a snapshot of how we think the next five years will look like through a new Construction Skills Network Industry (CSN) Outlook for 2021-25, published today.