HBF and CITB launch new £1m fund to train non-construction employees
Industry committed to developing fully trained workforce as it looks to deliver further increases in output
As the industry gears up to deliver further increases in output, the Home Builders Federation (HBF) and the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) have launched a new £1 million scheme to train non-construction staff.
The big increase in the number of homes built over the past two years has seen the industry recruiting and training tens of thousands of new people. This new fund, which will run throughout 2016, is aimed at ensuring the thousands of non-construction related staff - such as in sales and marketing or business development employees – are, like their construction counterparts, getting the required level of training to ensure the industry can deliver more, high quality homes.
The fund will help HBF members to target training to employees, graduate scheme trainees and those on undergraduate placements to ensure that best practice is applied and high standards upheld. A portion of the fund has also been set aside to fund further training for sales and marketing staff. Driving up levels of customer service is a particular area of focus for the industry as more potential customers visit sales offices and more homes are sold.
Commenting, Stewart Baseley, HBF Executive Chairman, said:
“The past two years have seen tens of thousands of new people recruited into housebuilding and a significant increase in the number of homes being built. As we look to increase output still further it is imperative we continue to increase industry capacity and develop the skilled workforce required to build the high quality homes the country needs.
“The house building process is an extremely complex one requiring a great number of people with very different skills. If we are to provide the high quality homes and the level of customer service today’s new build customer demands we need to ensure every member of staff in every part of the process is trained to the best possible standard. This scheme we are delighted to launch with CITB will enable HBF members to provide more of their employees with further training and development.”
Steve Radley, Director of Policy at CITB, says:
“Industry told us that more needed to be done to address the range of skills challenges in the housebuilding sector. Working with HBF, this new pilot fund is a first step in addressing that important issue and testing how this approach could be employed in other parts of construction.
“This £1 million pot of money will boost technical skills in the sector to ensure that we can build the homes the country needs.”
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For media enquiries, or to arrange an interview, please contact Steve Turner – 020 7960 1606 / 07919 307760 or steve.turner@hbf.co.uk
Notes to Editors:
The Home Builders Federation (HBF) is the principal representative body for private sector home builders and voice of the home building industry in England and Wales. HBF member firms account for some 80% of all new homes built in England and Wales in any one year, and include companies of all sizes, ranging from multi-national, household names through regionally based businesses to small local companies: www.hbf.co.ukCITB is the Industry Training Board for the construction industry in Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales). CITB works with industry to ensure that construction workers have the right skills in the right place at the right time, by investing funds and providing a wide range of industry-led skills and training solutions. CITB is also a partner in ConstructionSkills, the Sector Skills Council (SSC) for the UK construction industry, and is raising employer engagement in training, providing labour market insights on future skills needs and developing standards and qualifications for the sector. For more details please visit: www.citb.co.uk. The start date for eligible training that can be claimed for under the new £1m HBF fund is being back-dated to 1 September 2015, with eligible training up to 31 December 2016 being covered. This Grant support can only be accessed by those members of HBF who are in-scope for payment of the CITB Levy and registered with CITB.
Specifically, the fund will support:Training of employees on sales and marketing courses;Training of non-construction under graduates;Training of non-construction graduate scheme participants;Achievement of non-construction qualifications. The qualifications must be management, technical or professional qualifications such as a Marketing degree, or Cert IPD. (NOTE: this funding will not support achievement of NVQs as this can be claimed already through the main CITB Grant Scheme.)The start date for eligible training that can be claimed for under the new £1m HBF fund is being back-dated to 1 September 2015, with eligible training up to 31 December 2016 being covered.HBF members can find out more about how to apply for grant funding for non-construction employees on the HBF website.