The heritage and traditional build sector, just like the construction sector at large, has a skills problem. We don’t have enough new entrants, our workforce is getting older and there are few formal career paths if you are specifically interested in heritage construction.

But despite these issues, there is concerted action to try and turn things around.

For the first time, CITB has embarked on a mission of publishing ‘sector’ plans. These plans are led by industry representatives and supported by an industry advisory group and have an allocated pot of money which can be spent on tackling the issues that each plan identifies.

Despite often being seen as a niche or smaller part of the construction sector, CITB has dedicated a sector skills plan to the heritage and traditional build sector, and its publication is due this year. It’s taken a couple of years of development but it will soon set out the key challenges facing heritage and traditional build and importantly invite innovative applications for funding.

So what’s included?

There’s nothing in the plan that will surprise most readers of Heritage and Traditional Build magazine, but what is new is putting it all together in a structured manner, with suggested interventions and ideas and with a pot of funding sitting behind it.

The plan begins by setting out the key workforce challenges facing the sector. These include skills shortages, where there are not enough people with the necessary skills, and skills gaps, where existing workers do not have the specific skills required with the lack of formal routes in and then clear career pathways. To address this, the plan identifies a couple of quick wins including the development of competence statements to help identify what individuals need to be able to do the work that they are being asked to do and then a new approach at the industry shop window – selling heritage and traditional build construction as a whole, rather than an occupation by occupation or role by role approach. What some might call ‘selling the sizzle, not the sausage’!

Next the plan identifies the problems around sector leadership. Since the fall of the National Heritage Training Group, there has not been a lead organisation for heritage construction driving the national agenda for our part of the sector. The plan identifies the need to bring together various stakeholders to provide the strong voice that heritage needs, and to do so in a way that enables a joined-up approach. It also recommends the need for a heritage and traditional build pipeline of work which will give clients, contractors, colleges, training providers and prospective construction workers the faith that there is work coming, so they should invest in their buildings, their people and training.

Turning to training provision, heritage suffers from a terrible postcode lottery – great swathes of the country can go unserved by heritage and traditional build training and around half of all qualifications and courses backed by a standard are not actually available on the market. The plan sets out how best to monitor and suggests direct action to address these gaps in provision as well as what CITB can do to publish and champion a register of training that is available.

Finally, it would be remiss not to mention the greatest challenge and possibly opportunity that our heritage stock faces – energy efficiency. All the while heritage contractors tend to avoid retrofit works and retrofitters do not typically have detailed knowledge of heritage buildings, the country is missing an opportunity to achieve our Net Zero ambitions and to win more work. The plan commits to helping upskill retrofitters on heritage knowledge and to helping reskill heritage contractors to undertake retrofit works as part of their company’s offering.

The NFB is proud to be involved with the CITB Heritage Sector Skills plan, and while this article serves only as a taster, readers are encouraged to keep an eye out for the full publication and to come forward with ideas and solutions to help improve the skills landscape.

James M. Butcher

Deputy Chief Executive of the NFB and Chair of the CITB Heritage Sector Skills Plan