Skills

Competent fire-safety professionals could become overloaded with work due to delays in upskilling the profession, leading to safety risks, according to a senior industry professional. Nick Pickles, systems and assurance leader for passive fire protection at Laing O’Rourke, delivered the stark warning during a panel session at last week’s London…

The Home Builders Federation (HBF) has secured funding to expand a major upskilling initiative. The HBF’s Home Building Skills Partnership will use funds from the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) to deliver hundreds more brickwork masterclasses and roll out new roofing masterclasses. The £320,000 funding is in addition to a…

The vast majority of adults in the UK would not consider a career in construction, a survey has found. The poll, carried out for Deconstruction – a campaign aimed at improving perceptions of the construction industry – by YouGov found that 69 per cent of UK adults would not contemplate…

Major installer bodies have launched a coalition body that is working on a plan to address the green-skills crisis. The new Engineering and Building Services Skills Authority (EBSSA) will bring together existing members of engineering-services alliance Actuate UK with other bodies, including energy-infrastructure-technologies trade association BEAMA and the Chartered Institute…

The next vote on plans for the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) levy has been delayed by a year, amid a Whitehall review of the body’s future. Under a policy known as consensus, the organisation puts its plans for the amount companies must pay to an industry vote every three…

Wages for “unskilled” labourers and plant operators are growing faster than for other construction roles, according to the latest data from recruitment company Hays and the Building Cost Information Service. Labourers and plant operators are usually among the lowest paid in the construction sector, but the data found these roles'…

More than 650 students passed the second annual set of T levels in subjects related to the building trade this week. The technical skills qualifications, introduced in 2020 as an alternative to A levels, last for two years and offer a mix of classroom learning and on-the-job experience through an…

The City of London Corporation is calling for urgent action and investment to meet “growing demand” for workers with the skills needed to deliver sustainable buildings. The Skills for Sustainable Skyline Taskforce report, released by the organisation on 9 August, said one of the biggest barriers to tackling the built…

Thousands of people will be trained to retrofit and insulate homes following a cash injection of almost £9m in energy-efficiency courses. The government said it expected up to 8,000 trainees to take advantage of the new courses, which will be rolled out for free or on a heavily subsidised basis…

Education regulator Ofsted has warned that considerable work is needed to improve the quality of T levels. The two-year post-GCSE qualifications, launched in 2020, combine theoretical learning with industry placements; there are now more than 400 qualifications available, including in building, construction and engineering, as well as in subjects related…