CITB backs DfE drive to recruit construction tradespeople as further education trainers

The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) is supporting a Department for Education (DfE) campaign to persuade experienced construction professionals to move into further education (FE) training roles, the training body said on 5 October.

CITB said the campaign, which it refers to as Train Others in Further Education, launched at the end of September and has a focus on construction. The DfE's own campaign site invites people to "start training others in Further Education", listing construction among the subjects alongside maths, engineering and digital.

CITB said it has been working closely with the agency commissioned to build a regional index for the campaign. It gave the agency permission to reference and use data from its latest Construction Workforce Outlook report, together with information on known projects and case studies from NCC team members who have moved from working on the tools into training.

Peter, a painting and decorating trainer quoted on the DfE campaign site, said: "Industry professionals are best placed to pass on their skills and knowledge to the next generation."

The regional index

According to CITB, the index will pinpoint the regions where recruiting and retaining construction FE trainers could have the greatest impact. It will do this by combining teacher vacancy data with wider indicators of construction demand and workforce need.

The workforce forecasts feeding into that work come from CITB's Construction Workforce Outlook. CITB forecasts that the UK construction workforce will reach about 2.68 million by 2030, with an average of 41,200 extra workers needed each year between 2026 and 2030, or about 206,000 additional workers over the five-year period. CITB puts total UK construction output in 2025 at £230bn.

What the campaign offers tradespeople

On the construction pages of its campaign site, the DfE says excellent trade knowledge is the only qualification needed to begin a career training others in construction in FE. It says colleges are looking for people to start work immediately and complete teacher training on the job, earning a full salary from day one.

The DfE also says construction trainers may be eligible to claim a Targeted Retention Incentive payment of up to £6,000 within their first five years of teaching. Separate DfE guidance on GOV.UK confirms that teachers must be in the first five years of their FE teaching career to claim.

Background

CITB describes itself as the employer-led and funded skills and standards body for the construction industry in Great Britain.

The regional index, drawing on the Construction Workforce Outlook data and teacher vacancy figures, is intended to identify where recruiting construction FE trainers would have the greatest impact, CITB said.