Strategic Plan 2008 - 2012
The ECITB has been instrumental in achieving a significant boost in training within the engineering construction industry over the last two years. Advanced Apprentice starts have trebled to ~1,000 in 2007. Up-skilling and re-skilling programmes are also increasing and overall 10,000 people have been supported. A further 100,000 people received ECITB accredited safety training and achieved the safety passport.
These successes are a result of a focussed strategy and reorganisation into a “national hub and regional spoke” model that ensures employers and the ECITB work together to meet the skills needs. The ECITB now provides a complete package of standards based training and assessment solutions for key engineering, project, craft, technical, supervisory and management personnel.
The priorities for 2008 and into 2009 are to consolidate on the success to-date and to build further demand and capacity. We will continue to drive a strategy that is aimed at increasing the skill level and number of people within the available UK engineering construction workforce, for both on-site and off-site.
Forecasts indicate that many more people will be needed by 2014 to replace leavers and satisfy increased volume of work. We will closely track employer demand and provide balance of training for new entrants and upskilling of existing workers with the aspiration to achieve a self sustaining UK workforce by 2014.
Our approach is flexible and can be packaged to suit large and small companies with modular options, free training, grant support and assured delivery by our network of approved providers. The mission is to help engineering construction employers to ensure that their skills and competence needs are met and it will be achieved through maintaining progress in three distinct themes:
- Attract: Better informing people in school about the sector and the learning pathways to rewarding careers and further increasing the number people being attracted to engineering construction by opening and building new channels of entry, eg ex service personnel, young offenders and unemployed.
- Develop: Ensuring that programmes of learning (for new entrant and continuing learners) deliver relevant skills for the sector, are straight forward to follow and delivered to standard by quality assured providers.
- Qualify: Ensuring that individuals achieve appropriate recognition for their skills through the award of vocational qualifications and appropriate alliances with professional bodies. This provides assurance of the competence of people in the workplace and increases employability.
In order to fulfil the strategy, there are specific action plans to achieve more people being trained, increased training capacity to serve employer demand and creation of new products to fill identified gaps. Underpinning all of these is quality monitoring and competence assurance by maintaining national occupational standards, vetting and monitoring of providers and regulation and award of vocational qualifications.
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