Radical change needed to make construction and engineering skills provision fit for the future
Posted 30 January 2025 by Graham Hasting-Evans
The Department for Education (DfE) has published the Government’s response to Mark Farmer's Industry Training Board (ITB) Review.
Graham Hasting-Evans, Chief Executive of international skills solutions provider, NOCN Group, and President of the British Association of Construction Heads (BACH), contributed to the review as a member of the challenge panel. He comments:
“There continues to be a churn and significant change in Government policies for technical and vocational training and skills development in sectors including construction and engineering, which in itself drives a need for further change. However, much more fundamental is that the world of the 1960s when CITB and ECITB, with their Levies, were established, is radically different to where we are today.
"In 2025 and beyond, the construction and engineering industries must support our economy to become more productive and transition to Net-Zero in response to climate change, whilst also ensuring buildings and infrastructure meet the highest safety standards to avoid any more disasters like Grenfell.
"This means better skill levels, greater use of new technologies including AI, completely new skills, and further integration with construction products, engineering and manufacturing.
"This new ITB Review opens up the debate into how we comprehensively reform the way we do ‘construction skills’ to match needs for the 2030s and beyond. We need to face this challenge positively and proactively with future-fit skills solutions that have social impact. This includes everything from training specifically designed to upskill the existing workforce in areas like retrofit and low carbon, and the introduction of a Digital Skills Passport to give skilled workers a tangible and convenient way to prove competency.”
Graham welcomes the ITB Review's findings on the need for a shift in focus from upskilling new entrants into the construction and engineering sectors, to upskilling the existing workforce. This aligns with recent recommendations from NOCN Group in its Global Construction Skills Report which highlights the need to establish a long-term, realistic, strategic plan for investment in housing, infrastructure and Net-Zero to give industry confidence in the future. This report also looks at the development of proposals for the Growth and Skills Levy in respect of construction, with an aim of establishing a single coherent, less bureaucratic, arrangement across the UK which could also embrace the current CITB and ECITB Levies.
NOCN Group is already bringing its experience and technological capability as the owner of the Construction Plant Competence Scheme (CPCS) and International Safety Passport, to the development of a cross-sector, International Digital Skills Passport, which will enable workers to quickly and easily share their certifications and experience with employers and others. As the ITB Review calls for, it will be designed to: “span the whole workforce, with accreditations, experience, qualifications, and resultant proven competencies registered and capable of being policed.”
NOCN Group is one of the construction and engineering sectors' biggest Awarding and Assessment Organisation in the UK and internationally with a mission to bridge essential skills gaps, contributing to the creation of a safer, more productive and highly skilled workforce which supports economic growth and social mobility.
For further commentary on the ITB Review from Graham Hasting-Evans please contact NOCN Group's Head of Marketing & Communications, Darren Booth on Darren.Booth@nocn.org.uk.