Andrew Hockey, CEO of the ECITB, attended the inaugural Construction Skills Mission Board alongside Deputy Prime Minister – Angela Rayner, Work and Pensions Secretary – Liz Kendall, Skills Minister – Baroness Jacqui Smith, Minister for Industry – Sarah Jones as well as industry CEOs and sector leaders.
The meeting today, chaired by Mark Reynolds – Co-Chair of the Construction Leadership Council, launched the mission to recruit 100,000 more construction workers per year by the end of the Parliament.
The Board will develop specific initiatives and actions to deliver the mission, while supporting the Government to shape, develop and deliver skills policy.
The actions will focus on five key areas to drive increased recruitment:
- confidence to employ and invest;
- clear new entrant pathways;
- access to provision & support to train;
- funding that works; and
- reliable and rewarding careers.
At the meeting, Andrew represented the engineering construction industry (ECI), which will be central in supporting the mission.
After the meeting, Andrew said: “Engineering construction is key to the Government’s growth and skills goals and project certainty is vital to encourage contractors to invest in new talent.
“Government can provide project certainty to unlock final investment decisions, while procurement and regulatory levers also have an important role to play in incentivising skills training.
“Both the ECITB and CITB have a key role to play in training new entrants. For instance, we are helping to pump prime new talent through our Scholarship and Work Ready programmes, and as part of our new 2030 strategy we will be developing additional programmes to support and incentivise companies to take on trainees ahead of project need.
“But only through a collaborative approach can we help deliver, grow and maintain a skilled workforce fit for now and the future.
“Enhanced collaboration is already underway between the ECITB and CITB on specific areas including infrastructure across Great Britain, increasing trainers and assessors, clean energy jobs and skills passporting.
“We also need to deliver projects that enable workforce transition like the ECITB’s pilot Wind Turbine Technician cross-skill programme which supports two-way deployments across oil & gas and wind infrastructure.
“The Industrial Strategy, alongside the Infrastructure Plan, provides vital strategic clarity and direction. It presents a critical opportunity to align training and reskilling efforts with future project pipelines, ensuring workforce readiness as new infrastructure projects come online and clean energy deployment scales.”
Andrew Hockey
CEO, ECITB
