CITB reveals business plan which will see 800 jobs axed

The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) has unveiled its three-year business plan in which more than 800 staff are due to be axed as part of a restructuring plan in which the traning body claims will make a “radical difference”.

Based on feedback from levy-payers, industry and the Government’s ITB Review, Vision 2020: Business Plan 2018-21 sets out reforms designed to modernise its business. Overall the CITB is proposing to go from 1,370 staff across the UK in March 2018 to 558 by 2021.

In the three years to March 2021, the CITB will stop running training programmes at the National Construction College. The organisation says it will focus more on campaigning and producing reports that it hopes will influence policy makers.

CITB chief executive Sarah Beale said: “CITB has listened, and we have now taken action. This business plan sets out our ambitions for the next three years. It shows how CITB’s work across England, Scotland and Wales will modernise and repurpose. By 2020 we will be the ‘levy in, skills out’ body construction employers asked for, doing less, better, while being fully transparent and accountable. I am confident that this business plan will make a radical difference to CITB, enabling us to meet the skills needs of construction.”

Investment across the 2018-2021 period will reflect CITB’s strategic priorities:

• £613m on training and development
• £31m on engagement
• £17m on careers, increasing from £3 million in 2018/19 to £8 million in 2020/21
• £9m on building CITB’s evidence base, identify needs and delivering outcomes
• £4m on standards and qualifications, providing consistency and quality

Reforms highlighted in the plan are underway already after the introduction of CITB's Training Model and new Grant scheme. The CITB says its training model will enable employers to get the right training, in the right place, at the right time. It will mean workers can train and retain their qualification record to share with future employers.