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The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) has announced plans to launch a nationwide construction careers campaign, as it outlined the ‘big six’ challenges facing the sector.
CITB’s business plan for 2019-20, which aims to deliver more strategic and better focused training, identified the ‘big six’ challenges as:
- making construction an attractive career to a broader range of recruits
- developing a ‘site-ready’ workforce
- getting more construction learners to join the industry
- growing the number and diversity of apprentices
- helping smaller firms invest in the training that can transform their business
- boosting the number of assessors for vocational qualifications.
It revealed that it is planning a nationwide careers campaign that aims to attract and inspire recruits from all walks of life.
The campaign will highlight the “fantastic and well-paid career opportunities available, reaching groups who have traditionally been underrepresented in the industry”.
It will provide clear information on how to get into construction, including through apprenticeships and work experience, and will showcase the support available, such as higher CITB funding rates for apprenticeships.
Meanwhile, CITB will address a lack of site-ready recruits by expanding the Construction Skills Fund initiative launched last year, which is funded by the Department for Education and delivered by CITB.
And it will use industry funding to create 20 more onsite training hubs, in addition to the 26 already running in England, extending the scheme to Scotland, Wales and other regions in England.
CITB chief executive Sarah Beale said: “Our business plan identifies the most pressing skills challenges we face as an industry, and sets out the detail of how CITB will work with partners to address them.
“We’ve built the plan by listening to employers and their needs, and making sure CITB is focused on a small number of really critical projects that it is best placed to deliver, whilst improving our services too.
“Working with employers, learners and education, I’m confident that this plan will help transform construction and make it fit for the future.”
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Common problem in many countries including Malaysia. Even greater problem is that some countries do train but do not pay fair wages for the skills and thus those with skill migrate to other countries which pay higher wages.