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Onsite experience opportunities in construction - England

CITB has invited bids for projects to create local, onsite training hubs to help address the complex challenges facing the construction industry in England. Applications for this commission have now closed and we are in the process of assessing the proposals.

From 2019 to 2022 we aim to increase England’s construction talent pool by 50 per cent in specific occupations through onsite training hubs. We want to create a talent pipeline to meet the needs of local construction employers.

We want projects to focus on the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) areas that do not currently benefit from the Construction Skills Fund.

The construction industry in England is projected to grow by 1.2 per cent, and 28,920 jobs will need to be filled each year. Public and private housebuilding and infrastructure are the sectors we expect to grow the most. There are shortfalls in trades and occupations associated with these sectors. However, local skills priorities across England vary: a detailed list is available in the ‘Preparing your application’ section below.

Less than 30 per cent of people studying diplomas in construction end up working in the sector. Those in education need to gain more onsite experience to make them ‘work-ready’ and more attractive to employers.

Detailed local analysis shows that the picture of skills shortages varies across the country. The onsite approach allows a direct response to these skills shortages tailored to the needs of local construction employers and communities.

There are 20 LEP areas which we want to support through this fund:

  1. Cheshire and Warrington
  2. Coast to Capital (including West Sussex and Surrey)
  3. Cornwall and Isles of Scilly
  4. Cumbria
  5. Dorset
  6. GFirst (Gloucestershire)
  7. Greater Lincolnshire 
  8. Heart of the South West (including Devon and Somerset)
  9. Hertfordshire
  10. Lancashire 
  11. Leeds City Region 
  12. Leicester and Leicestershire 
  13. New Anglia (including Norfolk and Suffolk)
  14. North East (including County Durham, Gateshead, Newcastle, North Tyneside, Northumberland, South Tyneside and Sunderland)
  15. Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire 
  16. Swindon and Wiltshire
  17. Tees Valley Combined Authority (including Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar, Cleveland and Stockton-on-Tees)
  18. Thames Valley Berkshire (including Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Milton Keynes)
  19. West of England Combined Authority (including Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol and South Gloucestershire)
  20. Worcestershire

In the next three years we want to create at least 14 onsite training hubs in the 20 LEP areas which do not currently benefit from the Construction Skills Fund. 

The expected results are:

  • 10,000 individuals will benefit from receiving onsite experience
  • 7,300 individuals will become employment and site ready
  • At least 3,650 of these site ready individuals will be offered sustained employment
  • At least 14 onsite training hubs will create a sustainable infrastructure for talent.

By focusing the response to local occupational requirements and siting the hubs in the right place, local employers will also be motivated to support the sustained future of the hubs.