It’s time for the Construction Industry Training Board to refocus and better serve SMEs, writes Dr Victoria Hills, CEO of the Chartered Institute of Building
How to recruit, train and retain more people in the construction sector is a longstanding problem and by far the most common theme I hear when speaking to CIOB members.
Every year, CITB publishes its workforce outlook, which estimates how many workers need to be recruited over the next five years and while this year we saw that number decrease slightly from the 2025 forecast, it’s still over 200,000.
To help visualise, that’s more than double the number of people that can sit in Wembley Stadium. The question on many lips is ‘Where are they all going to come from?’
Others will ask why the industry struggles to recruit. Is it outdated perceptions of what construction roles are, is it a lack of visibility, is it the industry not being seen as welcoming to a diverse range of people or is it that we make it too hard for people to join? It’s most definitely a combination of all of them.
However, while others focus on fixing these, one of my big concerns is how new entrants are trained in a way that makes them want to go on and build a career for the long-term and how employers are incentivised and encouraged to take them on.
Let’s assume the current barriers around diversity and perceptions are fixed or at least greatly reduced, and we have a wave of keen and eager young people and career-changers queuing up to work in our exciting legacy-leaving sector. The fact is under the current system, a high proportion will change their minds and not end up working in construction.
Back to basics
In our response to the recent government consultation on a proposed merger between CITB and the ECITB, we at CIOB stressed the importance of reforming the system, getting the CITB to go back to basics and not allowing mergers and subsequent restructures to delay much-needed change.
Six months into my time at CIOB, I’m already hearing a very familiar story from our members, especially SME owners, when it comes to CITB and that’s one of poor value for levy and a body that has lost focus of its core purpose.
I’ve seen accounts from an SME that pays tens of thousands of pounds a year in levy payment and has received back far less. In a worrying trend, their levy payments are going up, while the amount they can claim through CITB’s Employer Networks for what it calls “approved training” is decreasing.
Understandably, the owner of that company feels let down by a broken system and has expressed to me his frustration at CITB also removing all funding for Level 7 qualifications.
I’ve also heard from SMEs who say they are underrepresented at the CITB table, and they feel powerless to influence decisions on how the money they pay through the CITB levy is distributed. When you consider our industry comprises mainly SMEs, this needs to change.
Devolve skills funding to local leaders
I’m personally agnostic to the idea of a merger between CITB and its engineering counterpart, although I’d like more transparency on what other options were considered and why they weren’t taken forward. What I, colleagues here at CIOB and many of our members are most concerned about is the time and money any such merger will take and it becoming a distraction from the key priority of levy distribution.
As we look towards a potential change in focus with an incoming prime minister likely to favour a more regionally devolved model of government, there is a glimmer of hope that more skills funding could be devolved regionally to elected mayors – something many have been crying out for.
Speaking from personal experience of having worked for all three mayors of London, one thing they all had in common was a clear understanding of local employment, training and education and skills requirements. Devolving skills funding to democratically elected leaders who understand their local communities could improve accountability and strengthen decision making.
We already feel CITB may have grown beyond its core purpose and some areas of it expanded remit, such as the review of National Occupational Standards and the writing of suitable pathways in the construction industry, are examples of resource-intensive activities which could be carried out by other organisations. CITB has grown to have a staff base of more than 800 people, and CIOB members have expressed concerns to me over the amount the body spends on activities such as marketing, PR and events.
Our consultation response has called for a review of this spending along with greater scrutiny from government, for whom the ongoing skills crisis poses a significant problem when it comes to its own housing and infrastructure commitments.
We note the annual priority letters, previously issued to CITB by the government, stopped being sent or stopped being made public in 2023-24. We believe there is merit in reinstating the letters or introducing an equivalent mechanism to ensure greater accountability, clearer strategic direction and stronger alignment with national skills priorities.
With the consultation on the proposed merger having closed in June, we await the government’s response and details of next steps, but here’s hoping any changes are made swiftly and result in a training body that delivers on its core function in the interests of construction companies both large and small, and individuals looking to develop a rewarding construction career.
With the national infrastructure pipeline ready to go, now is the time for bold action and decisions, and we’d urge the incoming prime minister to follow through on his devolution ambitions.
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