The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) has been supporting businesses within the sector since as far back as 1964. Over the years, they have developed their offering to not only provide quality, industry-recognised training, but they have also worked towards improving communities, growing businesses and inspiring future generations of workers, too.
The CITB is well-known for its grant scheme, which has paid out over £2.3 billion to employers in the construction industry that are dedicated to training their workforce. However, 2018 brings with it even more additions and improvements to the CITB’s offering, including the new ATO accreditation scheme.
Find out more about the latest updates and what these changes within the CITB’s offering could bring to businesses in the construction industry.
CITB’s Vision 2020 Programme
The recent changes to the CITB’s offering stems from a much larger objective – the Vision 2020: The Future programme. This is a strategy developed by the board which aims to offer a simpler and more streamlined approach to their way of working within the industry. The board laid out three priorities for the strategy to be focused on – Qualifications and training, standards and careers.
Ahead of the deadline in 2020, the CITB have launched the new Training Model and Grants Scheme this year, which will help the organisation to be more accountable and responsive to the needs of the construction industry.
What does the Training Model and Grants Scheme consist of?
The newly introduced model is broken down into four major components – Approved Training Organisations, the Construction Training Directory, the Construction Training Register and the new Grant Scheme.
Approved Training Organisations
The Approved Training Organisation (ATO) Accreditation is a new system where training providers can become recognised by the CITB for their quality offering. Once qualified, they will included within the new Construction Training Directory and can be provided to construction employers through the CITB grant scheme.
Here at Safety & Access we are already classed as an ATO and are featured on the Construction Training Directory and are well equipped to help you through the new grant process.
The Construction Training Directory
This new directory will allow employers within the construction industry, to find the relevant training for their team, in the most convenient place and at the most convenient time. The directory will include a variety of quality training courses from providers that have been approved by the CITB, and these training courses can be paid for using the the CITB grant.
The Construction Training Register
The Construction Training Register will work as a database, with which employers in the construction industry can manage their team’s training needs. They will be able to confirm any skills and achievements that their team members supposedly have, as well as developing a better understanding of what training they may need to provide.
With the new register, employers will be able to save time, effort and money on training that an employee may not need, simply by checking the database to see if they have already acquired the relevant skills.
Updated Grant Scheme
The main aim of the CITB’s grant scheme is to reimburse employers with the construction industry, for relevant training that their workforce accesses. The grant is provided as a way of improving the current skills gap in the industry, as well as ensuring health and safety standards are above standard on construction sites.
As it stands, the employees are required to take part in and qualify from the training course, before the employer can claim the money back from the CITB. However, thanks to updates to the grant scheme’s processes, the timeline from start to finish is now much quicker and more streamlined:
- An employer organises training with a CITB ATO
- The ATO will confirm when team members have qualified and upload their details onto the new Construction Training Register
- This will release the grant funding and will be automatically deposited to the employer
Working together, these four components of the updated CITB offering will ensure that the construction industry is being provided with the very best training for team members, in a much simpler and streamlined process. These changes to the CITB scheme are currently underway, however it’s expected to take some time for the changes (early 2019) to function properly.
