Govt announces £600m for construction training

The government has announced a £600 million package of investment to train up to 60,000 more skilled construction workers.

The investment over the next four years will, according to the government, “deliver well paid jobs across the country in the construction sector and help build 1.5 million homes to transform communities by the end of this parliament”.

HM Treasury noted that the construction industry faced “significant” skills shortages. It pointed to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics, showing that there were more than 35,000 job vacancies available but according to employers, more than half of these could not be filled due to a lack of required skills.

The £600 million investment will include:

• £100 million to fund ten new Technical Excellence Colleges.
• £165 million of funding to help colleges deliver more construction courses.
• £100 million to expand Skills Bootcamps in the construction sector, ensuring that new entrants, returners or those looking to upskill within the industry will be able to do so.
• £20 million for all Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) areas. This will help to form partnerships between colleges and construction companies, boosting the number of teachers with construction experience in colleges.
• An …