Thousands more apprentice construction workers will be hired each year to build homes and kickstart growth, through new skills hubs funded by industry leaders.
5,000 more construction apprenticeship places will be made available per year thanks to £140m industry investment to get Britain building again.
A total of 32 pioneering new Homebuilding Skills Hubs will deliver fast-track training to local areas that need more housing, while giving apprentices vital skills to boost housebuilding in the UK and drive forward the government’s growth mission.
The purpose-built hubs will provide a realistic working environment for training for key construction trades, including bricklayers, roofers, plasterers, scaffolders, electricians, carpenters and more.
The government is working with the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) and the National House-Building Council (NHBC) to launch them.
Working hand in hand with Skills England to identify the areas that need construction workers the most, this will ensure employers and businesses have access to high quality apprenticeship training, kickstarting economic growth and creating jobs across England.
The fast-track apprenticeships offered by the hubs can be completed in 12-18 months, up to half the time of a traditional 24-30-month construction apprenticeship. This means more construction workers can be trained quickly, unlocking economic growth by getting more people into highly skilled jobs.
Minister for Skills, Baroness Jacqui Smith, said: “This government is committed to 1.5 million homes being built across this parliament, while breaking down barriers to opportunity by fixing our broken skills system.
If we are to meet this ambitious target and fix the foundations of our economy, we need to ensure we have a skilled workforce, and give more apprentices a foot on the career ladder.
The need to boost our country’s skills is crucial to our mission-driven government, and I am pleased that this initiative will give apprentices skills to seize opportunity.”
Earlier this week, Minister for Skills Jacqui Smith hosted a roundtable with MHCLG’s Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook MP, DBT’s Minister for Industry Sarah Jones MP, and Social Security and Disability Minister Stephen Timms MP from DWP to discuss how government departments can work together with industry to reach our shared goals of more good-quality homes being built.
Today, the Skills Minister will visit students at Oldham College to find out how these hubs will help them to develop their skills.
Up to 32 training hubs will be set up across the country in the areas with the greatest homebuilding need, with all hubs scheduled to have launched by 2028.
