Infrastructure Sector Skills Plan

The infrastructure sector is vital to the UK economy, supporting housing and other construction activity. While Government investment continues across transport, water, energy, and more, delivery is at risk if there is not access to a workforce that has the right skills, competencies and capacity to deliver. This plan responds to that challenge, using industry partners and insight to identify workforce barriers and set out actions to overcome them.

List of interventions

Infrastructure Pipeline and Taxonomy Research

Two infrastructure-specific research projects to develop a detailed pipeline of future infrastructure skills needs, using top-down analysis of the Government’s National Infrastructure and Construction Pipeline, as well as developing a skills taxonomy. The development of a skills taxonomy for the infrastructure sector will enable a common understanding of skills demand and supply. This will help to overcome differences in terminology, avoid duplication of effort and increase transferability of roles and skills.

• To contribute to the research or learn more, contact research.team@citb.co.uk

Attract New Entrants

We’ll promote the great work already happening in the infrastructure sector to attract new entrants, from Go Construct STEM Ambassadors to plant simulators, the Careers and Enterprise Company, DYW Scotland and more. We will also review these existing initiatives and explore how to engage not only young people but also NEETs, ex-military, ex-offenders, career returners and career changers.

• If you’re already involved in careers-related activity within the infrastructure sector or would like to find out more, contact laurence.stone@citb.co.uk

Training Alliances

Training alliances (hubs) will bring civil engineering employers and training providers together to identify skills needs and aggregate demand to shape local training provision. We’re piloting regional alliances to deliver critical training for plant operatives, steelfixers, groundworkers and civil engineering operatives, all within one-hour travel zones of the alliances. The first alliance has been approved in Kent, with others to follow across England and Wales.

Employers within the highlighted areas should make use of the training alliances once up and running.

Competence Frameworks

Ensuring that your workers possess the right levels of competence is vital for a successful construction business. We’re developing and maintaining Competence Frameworks for key operative roles in the civil engineering and infrastructure sector. Individual role frameworks will be created in collaboration with employer bodies and experts to ensure relevance and accuracy.

We need industry specialists to feed into the development of these frameworks.

• Find out more about Competence Frameworks, or sign up for a working group