Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of young people training for a career in the construction industry.

The Government and construction industry have agreed an ambitious Sector Deal which aims to transform the productivity of the sector, including measures to increase skills and apprenticeships. We are working with the Construction Leadership Council (CLC), Construction Innovation Hub and Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) to identify the skills needed for the construction sector of the future and helping design the qualifications frameworks and training programmes that will enable firms to train the next generation of apprentices in these skills. A joint Government and industry commitment to develop 50 new construction apprenticeship standards by the end of 2018 has already been exceeded, with 82 new apprenticeship standards agreed.

Other measures include: a commitment to complete CITB’s reform programme by end 2019, to make it a more streamlined, responsive and effective organisation; an industry-led goal of increasing construction apprenticeship starts to 25k per annum by 2020; £34m investment in the Construction Skills Fund, to establish 20 onsite training hubs by 2020; an improved careers portal for the sector (through CITB’s GoConstruct), to help improve diversity of recruitment; work with industry to ensure sufficient high-quality work placements are available for the introduction of construction T Levels in 2020; and using public procurement to help drive investment in construction skills.