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Announcing CITB’s £17.8 million onsite experience commission

17/07/2019

Announcing CITB’s £17.8 million onsite experience commission

 

CITB is delighted to announce their largest ever funding commission. The £17.8 million onsite experience commission will tackle head on one of the biggest challenges facing the construction industry.

The three-year funding opportunity will help develop a site-ready workforce that is able to the meet the urgent demand for skilled labour.

 

How will the commission help?

By creating 20 ‘hubs’ on live construction sites across England, Scotland and Wales, the onsite experience commission will give 18,000 people the chance to gain the practical experience they need to be job and site-ready by 2022.

 

Building on the success of the Construction Skills Fund (CSF) onsite hub concept developed by CITB as part of the Government’s National Retraining Scheme, we are confident the onsite experience commission will deliver a rich seam of talent to industry. The 26 CSF hubs aim to provide placements for 17,500 with at least 30% gaining sustained employment in the sector. The hubs have already made 1,300 people site-ready since their launch in November last year. What’s more, 50% of these are from non-traditional entry routes and underrepresented groups.

 

The three years of learning from this investment will inform our collective understanding of sustaining a site ready talent pipeline and the model of support which best delivers the workforce the construction sector needs.

 

The onsite experience commission will:

 

•     Equip learners with vital soft skills, helping them understand the value of team working, how different skills complement each other onsite, and what roles they are best suited to.

•     Create employment opportunities, linking each learner with construction employers to secure a job on completion of their training.

•     Ensure a more diverse workforce by targeting non-traditional learners, careers changers, unemployed people or those at risk of unemployment.

•     Meet the construction industry’s specific skills needs in local areas, training people in areas where the sector is experiencing identified skills shortages and supporting Local Enterprise Partnership construction growth and skills strategies.

•     Through partnerships with employers, FE and government, develop a training experience that supports employers, learners and the local economy’s needs from training into employment.

•     Provide investment into local areas that haven’t already benefitted from the Government’s Construction Skills Fund.

 

Targeted national investment

 

In England, CITB will invest £8.8m over a three-year period, attracting over 7,000 people to construction. In Scotland, £5.4m will be invested in creating three hubs, with a brief to expand opportunities for employment through onsite experience, predominantly in rural areas. In Wales the focus will be on ensuring full-time construction students are site-ready. Three areas, aligned with city regions, will receive £3.6m over three years.

 

Important dates

 

22 July 2019: Expressions of interest open

19 August 2019: Applications open

27 September 2019: Deadline for expressions of interest

11 October 2019: Deadline for applications

 

How can you get involved?

Look out for another email this week inviting you to webinars where you can have your questions answered live, and links to our website containing more information.

 

Source: Sarah Beale CEO