The Department for Work & Pensions has published a consultation seeking views on the government’s proposal to bring together ECITB and CITB to create a single, unified Industry Training Board (ITB) to act on behalf of both construction and engineering construction sectors. The proposal sets out:
- the rationale for ITB reform, including the skills challenges the reform seeks to address
- the proposed approach to reform and the intended benefits of a single, unified ITB
- the technical detail of creating a single, unified ITB, including implications for its governance, levy arrangements and skills offers
- alternative approaches to ITB reform that were considered.
Views are also sought on two potential areas for future ITB reform:
- whether further changes should be considered to the employer activity in scope of a single ITB
- whether the maximum period for an ITB levy order should be extended beyond three years.
Responses to the consultation are particularly sought construction and engineering construction employers registered for the CITB and ECITB levies in England, Scotland and Wales, as well as employer and workforce representative bodies for these sectors, including ITB prescribed organisations and trade unions.
The consultation period runs for 12 weeks until 11:59pm on Sunday 14th June 2026. For details, and how to respond, see here.
The 2023 Industry Training Board (ITB) review by Mark Farmer made the case for ITB reform. It concluded that the current model, while enabling worthwhile training, was “not delivering the level of strategic forward thinking, scale and pace of influence or tangible bottom line impact that the industry required to future proof it against the significant workforce issues it faces”. Farmer recommended a refocused ITB strategy spanning attraction, training, retraining and retention, to drive productivity and capacity. A key element of this refocused strategy was merging the CITB and ECITB.
Got a story? Email [email protected]
