By Andrew Hockey, Chief Executive of the Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB)
The launch of our new 2026–2030 strategy, Leading Industry Learning, in September marked the beginning of an exciting new chapter for the ECITB.
Our five-year plan reflects the real needs and evolving priorities of the engineering construction industry (ECI), with our forecasts stating that 40,000 additional workers could be needed for major projects by 2030.
But while we focus on the future, it is important to take a moment to reflect on what we delivered across the 2023-25 strategy period.
In the last three years we have:
- Supported over 4,000 new entrants into the workforce;
- Invested £61 million in training;
- Committed £3 million into regional skills hubs;
- Achieved a record Workforce Census response to give us a strong foundation of labour market intelligence;
- Surpassed 100,000 online course completions on our Learning Experience Platform (LXP).
Industry views
Alongside these statistics, it’s been great to hear first-hand the impact of our work. In the lead-up to our strategy consultation workshops and regional forums in the autumn, we shared examples of how our work is supporting industry.
STATS Group is one of many employers that work closely with the ECITB to help upskill and empower its workforce.
Andy Buckworth, Training & Competence Manager, said: “When we reach out to the ECITB, there’s always a solution. Having that support is really helpful and demonstrates the value of the ECITB. It reaches out, listens to industry, is flexible and reacts to what we need.”
Amid the Tata Steel closure in Wales, ECITB funding helped workers at C&P Engineering Services get the training needed to switch to work in the water sector (pictured). CEO Paul Bunyan said: “The ECITB has been great and helped us keep workers in employment.”
ECITB regulated qualifications are valued by employers because they deliver the skills the ECI needs and offer development opportunities to workers.
Maja Redlowska, a project controller at NRS Dounreay, completed an ECITB qualification in March this year. She said: “The qualification improved my skills and gave me confidence to be involved in bigger infrastructure projects. It gave me wider perspective of how what I do benefits the organisation.”
With growing demand for skilled workers, training and developing new entrants is a key priority. The ECITB Scholarship programme provides learners with a grounding in industrial knowledge and skills, accelerating scholars into apprenticeships or other forms of employment.
RB Plant Construction Mechanical Engineering Director Seán McKirdy said: “The scholarship programme creates a good pipeline of new talent to industry. It is perfect for us. It essentially de-risks recruitment. We get motivated, new recruits who have already gone through training to gain the basic building blocks and can enter the workforce.”
Our life-changing Work Ready Programme offers learners aged 18 and over who are not in employment, education or training the opportunity to gain recognised industry skills and qualifications, leading to employment opportunities.
After years of temporary contracts, Ken Holmes now has a full-time role with Altrad, thanks to the programme. He said: “I’ve seen how Work Ready gives people who don’t have a job a new lease of life. You can start a career from what you have learned.”
Pictured: Ken Holmes, left, during his time on the Work Ready Programme at SETA in Southampton. Photo by Dave Dodge. Main image: Chief Executive Andrew Hockey meeting apprentices at North East Scotland College (NESCol) who have benefited from the ECITB funding welding facilities at the new Energy Transition Skills Hub.
Validation of our work
These examples showcase how the ECITB is delivering for industry. Helping attract the next generation of engineers, while training and upskilling the existing workforce. This is what we do – and we do it well. And industry agrees.
Every three years, the ECITB is required by law to consult on levy rates for the following three-year period. The latest consultation in October saw 85% of levy-paying employers, representing 98% of the industrial training levy paid, vote in favour of the proposed rates.
The positive response represented another significant vote of confidence in the ECITB and showed that the plans outlined in our strategy correctly identify the key workforce challenges and set out the right priorities to support industry.
Days after announcing this record vote, we celebrated the 13th annual Engineering Construction Industry (ECI) Training and Development Awards. The winners (pictured) and finalists were all great examples of the success stories across industry and have all benefited in some way from the ECITB delivering our 2023-25 strategy.
During the ceremony, we played a message from the Minister for Skills, the Rt Hon Baroness Smith of Malvern, who said: “Last year alone, the ECITB supported training for over 30,000 learners, that’s a huge impact.
“What makes the ECITB special is how it brings everybody together – government, employers, trainers and learners – to make sure skills investment hits where it matters most.”
Hearing this was further validation of our work, but also underlined the importance of collaboration, which was a recurring message throughout our strategy consultation workshops. Indeed, one of our employers said: “Either we succeed together or fail alone.”
January sees the ECITB make a start delivering on our bold ambitions to drive long-term outcomes through significant interventions that can deliver lasting impact.
But we recognise that achieving the outcomes from our new strategy will require collaboration and commitment well beyond the ECITB alone.
Collaboration in action
At the start of 2025, the Department for Education published the Government’s response to Mark Farmer’s ITB Review, which stressed the vital need for the work of the Industrial Training Boards (ITBs) within the construction and engineering construction industries.
The Government requested greater collaboration between the ECITB and Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) on specific areas such as infrastructure across Great Britain, increasing trainers, clean energy jobs and skills passporting.
We have spent the last year working together to develop joint actions in these areas. Signing the Sizewell C Skills Charter alongside the CITB showcased our commitment to this aim, while we co-sponsored Construction & Engineering Week in Lincolnshire in September, which saw more than 1,500 local school pupils try out different trades.
Collaborating like this with industry partners is part of our DNA. We are committed to working with industry to turn our strategic intent into action to develop the skills needed for the delivery of critical infrastructure projects, energy security and net zero ambitions.
Pictured: School pupils try out Worley’s pipe fitting activity at Construction & Engineering Week at Lincolnshire Showground in September.
