Woman on a construction site wearing a high vis jacket and hard hat and holding a clip board

The Home Builders Federation (HBF) has recently announced the launch of a fifth round of its successful Women into Home Building programme, designed to attract more women into site management roles within the construction industry.

Partnering with ten leading homebuilders, the programme offers over 30 training opportunities, support services and work placements to aspiring female site managers. Find out more in this week’s blog.

Group of four construction workers on site looking at a tablet during a training session.

Toolbox Talks have long been a staple part of a construction team’s day, but are they truly effective? Are your crew members simply going through the motions or are they actively listening, learning and improving?

In this week’s blog, we’re sharing five simple techniques you can use to boost the engagement, understanding and impact of your next Toolbox Talk, thereby driving safer and more skillful work

Back in November last year, we reported on a free masterclass for bricklayers that was being offered by the Home Builders Federation (HBF) and how an equivalent opportunity would soon be made available for roofers.

This month, the HBF have released that opportunity so, if improving your roofing skills is on your ‘to do’ list, read on.

Image of a man with a sack of money on his back, representing the idea of overspending.

The John Lewis advert has hit the screens, supermarket shelves are starting to fill up with Christmas goodies and probably somewhere there’s a radio station already adding Mariah Carey into their playlist.

While the festive season brings joy to many, there is a darker side which sees some people falling into debt as they join in with the ‘spend, spend, spend’ ethos that will be pushed at us over weeks ahead. Businesses are not immune to this either and can, in fact, stumble into overspending habits at any time of the year. With this in mind, our blog this week focuses on some simple ideas for avoiding overspending.

hands reaching into centre of an image showing items relating to learning

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.

When project deadlines are looming, allowing periods of overtime can be helpful in ensuring everything is completed on time. However, excessive reliance on overtime during any phase of construction can be a telltale sign that something might have gone wrong at the initial planning stage.

So, the question is ‘How can a construction business effectively reduce its reliance on overtime and ensure smoother, more efficient operations?’ Read this week’ blog to explore this subject in more detail.

A new England-wide employment scheme is looking to encourage more women to join the residential construction workforce and especially to go into site management roles.

Launched by the Home Builders Federation and the not-for-profit organisation, Women Into Construction, the scheme is offering women work placement opportunities on sites with access to support with childcare and training costs. The hope is that this will have the duel effect of reducing skills shortages in the industry and rebranding construction as a rewarding and practical career opportunity for people from all walks of life. Read on for more details…

hands reaching into centre of an image showing items relating to learning

As we near the end of August, you can’t help but notice all the ‘back to school’ signs and merchandise laid out at the front of the shops. This got us thinking about how, nowadays, the idea of getting back into learning mode is no longer reserved just for children and young people. The principle of ‘lifelong learning’ has long been something that many adults have embraced but, as our world continues to change at such a fast pace, this seems to be becoming more important than ever. In this week’s blog, we’re exploring the multiple professional and personal benefits that following this approach offers.

To succeed in construction today and over the coming decades, the workforce needs to think about a continuous skills upgrade. We’re not only talking about the technical skills or upgrades required by particular trades. For anyone working in construction to make a leap from ‘good’ to ‘great’ performance, there are a host of other skills and knowledge that should be also nurtured. This week’s blog includes three steps which construction companies can use to encourage a culture of life-long learning plus some great examples of the online training options available.

It’s no secret that the construction industry has been facing skills shortages for a considerable length of time. With unemployment rising and further job losses on the horizon (the impact of Covid-19) coupled with what some are calling the ‘Brexodus’ effect when it comes to using (or rather losing) EU labour, the obvious solutions are…

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