Blog by Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB) Chief Executive Andrew Hockey
Strategic intent is vital in any organisation, which is why I’m always stressing the importance of linking everything we do at the ECITB back to the three pillars of our strategy.
We have now almost reached the end of the second year in our 2023-25 Leading Industry Learning Strategy, developed following extensive consultation with industry, training providers and UK, Scottish and Welsh governments.
We need to build upon what has been achieved and continue to ensure the engineering construction industry (ECI) has the skilled workers it needs both for now and the future. Because of this, we’ve already set the wheels in motion for our 2026-28 strategy.
Following a series of highly productive strategy development days, the ECITB Board has started work to develop the next ECITB strategy. In 2025, we will be coming to you to ask your views on the priorities we need to take forward for skills development in the ECI for the next strategy period.
But while we look forward with great excitement at what lies ahead, it is important to take a moment to reflect on the progress we’ve made over the last two years in our three-year strategy.
We will provide a detailed overview of the past year at the ECITB National Forum on 26 February, but here are some highlights from 2024 linked to the pillars of our strategy.
Foundations
This pillar underpins everything the ECITB does, from grant funding training to developing actionable workforce intelligence to inform effective decision-making.
Across the course of our strategy, we have committed more than £87 million to support workforce training and tackle the industry’s labour shortages and skills gaps.
This includes £73 million towards training grants, of which more than half (52%) funds ongoing training, upskilling and reskilling, while the remaining 48% supports new entrants into the sector.
The ECITB Workforce Census was a major piece of fieldwork undertaken in 2024.
We received data from 188 establishments, achieving a record response rate of 63.5% (up from 50% in 2021) and representing 85.3% of the workforce from our in-scope employers.
The findings, which will be released in January, will enable us to improve understanding of current and future workforce trends, help inform training interventions and ensure accurate representation of industry in our discussions with governments and other partners. It will also provide greater accuracy to our Labour Forecasting Tool.
Growing a skilled workforce
Our second pillar is about supporting a broad range of new entrant pathways and skills programmes so that industry can recruit, develop and retain talent. In the first two years we have supported more than 3,350 new starters.
Seeing first-hand the impact of our work during site visits over the last 12 months has truly helped bring our strategy to life. For example, I recently met with the latest cohort of the Work Ready Programme at SETA in Southampton.
Attendees, who are 18+ and include those who have been long-term unemployed, gain recognised industry skills and accredited qualifications as part of a programme that helps them secure employment at the end.
Working in collaboration with industry partners to build a sustainable talent pipeline for the future, we have been able to offer people opportunities in industrial cluster hot spots across the UK.
Pictured here and main image: CEO Andrew Hockey meeting Work Ready learners at SETA in November 2024. Photos by Dave Dodge
Supporting industry in transition
The third pillar is about anticipating and responding to the skills requirements of the future, including those driven by net zero.
With the ECI set to play a vital role in delivering net zero, helping industry navigate the energy transition and decarbonise the industrial clusters is central to our work.
This time last year we announced a £1 million investment in Regional Skills Hubs to boost training provider capacity and grow new entrant numbers in areas at the heart of the UK’s decarbonisation agenda.
It was great to see the first recipient of this funding, Humber training provider CATCH, open its new welding and pipefitting training facilities in September – just nine months after receiving £300,000 from the ECITB. This investment has enabled CATCH to increase learning capacity by 100%.
3t Training Services was the second recipient – awarded £200,000 to build three mobile units to deliver mechanical fitting, pipefitting and plating training across the UK to areas where there is insufficient training provision.
And we have further funding announcements in the pipeline. Watch this space!
Pictured: The September opening of the new CATCH facility that received ECITB Regional Skills Hub Funding.
Future potential
Another of my highlights was celebrating the achievements of industry at the ECI Training and Development Awards at One Marylebone, London, in November.
I felt a deep sense of pride and hope as I reflected on the present and future potential of our industry. The finalists are great examples of the success stories from across industry and have all benefited in some way from the ECITB delivering our strategy.
As we move into 2025, our focus will be to deliver the final year of the current strategy and launch a consultation period to call on industry to input into our strategy development for the next three years.
This is not just the ECITB’s strategy – it is our industry’s training and development strategy that ensures the ECI develops the generation-defining skills and workforce landscape required for the delivery of critical infrastructure projects, energy security and net zero ambitions.
Pictured: Toby Highstead, a mechanical engineer at Amentum, celebrates winning Graduate of the Year at the ECI Training & Development Awards in November 2024.
