Chancellor Rachel Reeves is investing £600 million to train 60,000 additional skilled construction workers.

She says they will be hired to help build 1.5m homes by the end of this parliament. 

According to the Office for National Statistics there are more than 35,000 job vacancies and employers report that over half of vacancies cannot be filled because of a lack of required skills. This is the highest rate of any sector.

Demand is expected to increase further to deliver the homes and infrastructure that this country needs.

Funding and reforms announced today will pay for more training places and is part of the Government’s Plan for Change.

Today’s announcement will provide £100m of new investment to fund 10 new Technical Excellence Colleges and £165m of new funding to help colleges deliver more construction courses.

Skills Bootcamps in the construction sector will also be expanded, with £100m of funding to ensure new entrants, returners, or those looking to upskill within the industry will be able to do so.

All Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) areas will benefit from £20m to form partnerships between colleges and construction companies, to boost the number of teachers with construction experience in colleges, sharing their vital expertise by training the next generation of workers.

Construction will also be one of the key sectors that will benefit from new foundation apprenticeships backed by an additional £40m, which will be launching in August.

As part of this new offer, employers will be provided with £2,000 for every foundation apprentice they take on and retain in the construction industry, on top of fully funding the training costs through the new Growth and Skills Levy.

A further £100m of Government funding, alongside a £32m contribution from the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) will fund over 40,000 industry placements each year for all Level 2 and Level 3 learners, those studying NVQs, BTECs, T-levels, and advanced apprenticeships.

This will help get learners ‘site-ready’ and address the ‘leaky pipeline’ of learners who don’t progress into the sector. The CITB will also double the size of their New Entrant Support Team (NEST) programme to support SMEs in recruiting, engaging, and retaining apprentices.

To ensure employers are able to work collaboratively to secure the workforce needed to meet future demand, the Government will sponsor a new Construction Skills Mission Board.

Co-chaired by government and by Mark Reynolds, executive chair of Mace, the board will be empowered to develop and deliver a construction skills action plan and provide strategic leadership to the construction sector.

Ms Reeves said: “We are determined to get Britain building again, that’s why we are taking on the blockers to build 1.5 million new homes and rebuild our roads, rail and energy infrastructure.

“But none of this is possible without the engineers, brickies, sparkies, and chippies to actually get the work done, which we are facing a massive shortage of.

“We’ve overhauled the planning system that is holding this country back, now we are gripping the lack of skilled construction workers, delivering on our Plan for Change to boost jobs and growth for working people.”