Thousands of brickies and roofers across England, Wales and Scotland are set to benefit from a major new fully-funded training initiative that aims to upskill the workforce and address common defects.
As part of the industry’s ongoing commitment to building quality homes and with CITB funding, the Home Builders Federation’s (HBF) ‘Home Building Skills Partnership’ has begun delivering a series of brickwork masterclasses and will be rolling out brand-new roofing masterclasses soon. Find out more about these free training opportunities in this week’s blog.
The masterclasses
Developed in partnership with expert bodies, NHBC, the Association of Brickwork Contractors (ABC) and National Federation of Roofing Contractors (NFRC), these free masterclasses focus on practical skills and knowledge on common issues found by NHBC Inspection teams. Participants should expect to come away with improved confidence in areas of good practice within their industry.
Initially launched in 2019, through this initiative, NHBC Building Inspectors have already delivered more than 1,100 training sessions to more than 10,200 brickies. To support uptake and reduce disruption to the working day, the training is delivered face-to-face at participants’ sites across England, Wales and Scotland.
The training is funded by CITB as part of its £3 million investment into initiatives to support the Home Building Sector Skills Plan. These initiatives illustrate new ways of working to improve skills, training, and recruitment in the home building sector.
Neil Jefferson, Managing Director at HBF, said:
“Investment in the home building industry’s workforce is fundamental to ensuring much-needed homes can be delivered to the quality standards customers quite rightly expect.
“By delivering practical training on the sites where work is taking place, this initiative has already successfully upskilled thousands of tradespeople. This new funding award will supercharge the roll out of training and support home builders to deliver the high-quality new homes communities need.”
Tim Balcon, CITB Chief Executive, said:
“I’m delighted to see the Home Builders Federation secure this funding, enabling thousands of workers to upskill and, crucially, help meet the needs of the homebuilding pipeline. This initiative supports the wider Homebuilding Sector Skills Plan, delivering an exciting programme of sector-specific skills initiatives, which will truly put employers in the driving seat.
“By responding to the needs of the sector and working collaboratively with a range of partners and stakeholders, CITB continues to support the construction industry to have a skilled, competent and inclusive workforce, now and in the future.”
Darryl Stewart, Head of Commercial Services at NHBC, said:
“It is important we provide easily accessible training to the supply chain and SME sector and this funding will help us to continue this.
“Delivered by our experienced NHBC Building Inspectors who conduct more than one million site inspections each year, these courses are designed to deliver practical skills and knowledge on the most common brickwork and roofing issues.
“Our goal is to help builders get homes right first time and we are committed to supporting house builders and their supply chain, equipping them with the skills to build high quality new homes.”
Find out more
The free brickwork masterclasses are now live for booking via the NHBC website which currently show that there are still four opportunities to book talks in London plus many more in other towns and cities. Locations and dates for roofing masterclasses will follow in the coming months.
Visit the NHBC website for more information and to sign up – Brickwork masterclasses.
07.11.2023
Feature image: Rawpixel/Shutterstock.com
