The head of the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) has warned of the dangers of not gathering enough evidence of construction skills needs.
Speaking to MPs on Wednesday (26 March), CITB chief executive Tim Balcon said the industry had not developed in the way envisaged by the 2016 Modernise or Die labour report by Mark Farmer.
That report said modern methods of construction would become central to the delivery of construction in the UK.
“The danger is that you equip a workforce with skills that aren’t going to be needed,” Balcon (pictured) said, adding that a “real demand-led approach” should be the focus.
“The only way you can properly give foresight to that is for the industry to come together so you get the industry view, not an individual view from one company that’s investing in modern methods of construction,” he said.
He praised the work of the National House Building Council (NHBC), which is working on a new series of skills hubs alongside the CITB and government.
“They’re bringing all the housebuilders together so we can determine where the demand is, and once we determine demand, we can then put a skills solution in place,” Balcon said.
“On that model, you can actually adapt quite quickly to the demands that you’ve got, but I don’t see that happening across other sectors in that way.”
The Energy Security and Net Zero Committee session also included a discussion on difficulties in attracting skilled construction professionals to become trainers at educational institutions.
Association of Colleges chief executive David Hughes said the plan for a new Construction Skills Mission Board, announced on Sunday (23 March) with £625m in funding for England, would help pay for more trainers.
And he noted that while there “aren’t many construction workers who want to become full-time lecturers and trainers, there are quite a lot who will offer their experience to the students” on a short-term basis.
Balcon pointed out that one constraint is that the average construction salary is £45,000 while in further education (FE) it is £35,000. He also said the new package would help address this.
The CITB boss said he had been advising the Department for Education on the need to tackle the disconnect between small businesses and the FE sector.
He said: “Ninety per cent of those that work in construction work in an organisation of nine people or less and their recruitment approach is they recruit from friends or family, they recruit from somebody they met in the pub, somebody that’s put a note on Facebook, etc.
“While I’m a big fan of FE colleges […] there is a disconnect, because that 90 per cent of construction don’t look at FE to provide their workforce for them because it’s too hard. When they get a trainee, they have to look after them, they have to pay for wages where they’re not being productive as such, they’d much rather go out there and get a labourer.”
This feedback helped shape the government’s plans for the new skills mission board, he said.
The government envisages integration between colleges and smaller businesses, which are encouraged to look to FE colleges for workers, Balcon added.
The plan will also see the CITB’s new entrant support team double in size.
That team, founded in 2023, sees CITB staff speak directly to small businesses about the possibilities for apprentices.
“At least half of them say yes, but they haven’t got the wherewithal or investment to be able to do it.
“What the new entrant support team does, it takes away all of the barriers that those employers face: either I don’t know how to do it, I don’t know… where the funding comes from, I don’t know what to do when I get them,” Balcon said.
He said the team had ensured 5,000 new apprenticeship starts since it was founded.
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Ian Weinfass