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Mission and plans

CITB is dedicated to ensuring the construction workforce has the right skills for now and the future based on our three strategic priorities – Careers, Standards and Qualifications, and Training and Development. 

We are the Industry Training Board and a partner in the Sector Skills Council for the construction industry in England, Scotland and Wales.

Our mission: To attract and support the development of people to construct a better Britain.

Our vision: For British construction to have a recognised, world-class, innovative approach to developing its workforce to deliver quality in the built environment.

CITB Skills Stability Plan 2020-21

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In June 2020, CITB published its Skills Stability Plan (PDF, 163KB), which sets out how CITB is supporting employers’ skills and training needs as the industry restarts following the impact of COVID-19.

The Skills Stability Plan describes the prioritisation and skills investments in the April 2020-March 2021 financial year. The priorities are to protect apprenticeships and provide direct funding to employers to adopt new ways of working needed in the wake of COVID-19 and retain skills. 

CITB will work with other industry partners to match displaced workers with new opportunities, including through exploring a talent retention scheme. This will build on the support already provided to help apprentices complete their programmes including through up-front grant payments to current year 2 and year 3 apprentices, assistance to match displaced or at-risk apprentices to new employers and developing more alternative options such as Shared Apprenticeship Schemes.

The Plan has also prioritised the Grant Scheme and direct funding for employers through the Skills and Training Funds, with £8m earmarked for small and micro businesses, £3.5m for medium-sized businesses, with a £3m Leadership and Management Fund for large firms. This will help employers train to adapt to the new working environment and update the skills needed by their business to help recover

CITB welcomes the publication of proposals set out on 1 June 2020 by the Construction Leadership Council's Covid-19 Task Force. The CLC's Roadmap to Recovery plan is a strategy to drive the recovery of the construction and built environment sectors, and through them the wider UK economy, following the COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturn.

CITB launched its 2019 that recaps what it has accomplished in the last year and sets out its agenda for the next three years. 

2018-2021 business plan 

Our 360 publication examines the progress we've made towards achieving our Business Plan. 
Read the latest edition.

CITB has a plan for each nation where we are working with national government and supporting the construction industry in that country.

Each nation's plan for 2019 to 2021 is available to download from the list below:

Major players in the UK construction industry have published a plan to help brace the sector for tighter migration controls after Brexit.

Building After Brexit: An Action Plan for Industry identifies the need for construction to adopt a twin-track strategy: growing investment in the domestic workforce and driving up productivity, while working with Government to agree how to maintain access to migrant workers to give it the breathing space to adapt.

Published by a pan-industry group the action plan details specific steps the construction industry, government and CITB must take to lessen the impact of Brexit, based on extensive research undertaken since the EU referendum.

Recommendations include:

  • Attract talent by raising apprenticeship starts and completions, creating pathways into construction for under-represented groups and providing better work experience opportunities.
  • Retain the workforce by supporting older workers to stay in the industry, upskilling the existing workforce and offering improved mental health support.
  • Be productive by developing a Future Skills Strategy to identify the skills required to modernise the industry, drive digitalisation forward and boost investment in modern methods of construction.

Building After Brexit: An Action Plan For Industry is a product of work from the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), Construction Leadership Council (CLC), the Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA), Construction Products Association (CPA), Federation of Master Builders (FMB) and the Home Builders Federation (HBF).

Download Building After Brexit: An Action Plan for Industry report (PDF 1.05MB)

Future CITB: Vision 2020

In 2017, CITB conducted one of its largest ever industry consultation exercises and learned what UK construction wants from a modern training body:

  • A streamlined organisation
  • Renewed governance, increased transparency on outcomes and greater accountability regarding their achievement
  • An effective, sustainable business model
  • Better value for levy payers and a reformed grants scheme
  • Modernisation to boost productivity and careers in the industry
  • A sustainable, high quality training and development market.

Throughout the Consensus process we heard further strong messages from Federations and employers that they want to see these reforms happen and quickly.

The independent ITB review represented the final piece in the roadmap towards our future model, and CITB fully supports its vision for a modern training body. Our vision, outlined in the business plan underlines what many of you told us, and identifies how our reforms will support a range of priorities including improved productivity, modernisation and the Industrial Strategy. 

Construction is facing a number of challenges including changes in migration, an aging workforce and a period of economic rebalancing accompanied by increases in workloads – including some key large scale infrastructure projects. But we also need to look towards the future and how industry can deliver projects more effectively using new methods of construction.

A modern workforce needs a modern fit-for-purpose training organisation and that is what we are committed to delivering.

Our agenda for change sets out six key outcomes we will deliver in the next twelve months to tackle our sector’s skills issues.

We will:

Be responsive: By reforming our Grants Scheme, making payments easier and more accessible and using our resources to support a sustainable, responsive and high quality training and development market.

Be innovative: By working closely with industry to develop new and better ways to meet its needs.

Be influential: By building engaging, dynamic partnerships that help industry to attract, train and retain its future workforce.

Be accountable: Through national campaigns, transparent strategic planning and a new outcomes focus.

Be representative: Through strong partnerships, renewed governance and improved accountability.

Be relevant: By modernising, changing the way we dobusiness and providing the support that our industry needs. CITB will build an evidence base, creating a high-quality standards framework, advocating, engaging and influencing to ensure training provision.

Watch Sarah Beale, chief executive of CITB discuss what the ITB review means for the organisation (duration 1min 40sec).

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