In 2017/18 – 5 Colleges, 9 Employers, and 48 young people learning Bricklaying, Carpentry and Dry Lining trades took part in a Fast Track New Entrant Pilot for Construction College leavers into the home building Industry. Young people had the opportunity to gain knowledge, insight and experience that enabled them to sustain a career in home building. The legacy of the pilot is CITB’s Brickwork Academy’s with much of the content now included within our Pathways into Home Building programme for FE Leavers.
The pilot helped to raise awareness with the industry training boards, home builders, and colleges about the market failure in the current training system that sees fewer than one in four young people from a construction course enter the sector.
Qualified construction college leavers took part in up to 6 weeks of boot camp training with their FE college, designed to test their competency, enhance their newfound skills, improve speed to support their future employment with home builder firms, and bridge the gap between leaving college and the world of work. 14 candidates sustained a job in home building and went on to achieve their NVQ and a CSCS blue skilled card.
