Covid-19: CITB chief exec update – 11 June 2020

Good afternoon,

I hope you’re having a good week. Today’s email takes a look at measures being taken to restart training safely; an update on CITB’s support measures for industry; and a reminder of the support documents available on our website.

Restarting training

We continue to work with Governments in England, Scotland and Wales to ensure the full breadth of construction training, particularly apprenticeships, can be restarted as soon as it is safe to do so.

In England guidance was published encouraging face to face teaching in Further Education to commence week commencing 15 June, with a phased introduction.

We have worked with partners in Wales to help shape Welsh Government guidance for face to face training in Further Education and Work Based Learning. We will now work closely with all our providers in Wales to confirm when face to face training will resume and will keep you updated.

In Scotland, the Scottish Government have included an outline of their decision making process for re-opening college and university campuses. This will start with a phased return for colleges and universities, with a combination of remote learning and, where a priority, limited on-campus learning is included in phase 3 of the plan.

We will continue to monitor the situation in each of the nations and provide further information directly to those impacted as soon as changes are made.

Update on recent support measures

Site Safety Plus

More than 2,500 learners have now completed their Site Safety Plus course through remote delivery, whilst we have just started to see course notifications come through from centres that have starting to deliver face-to-face training following the appropriate safety guidelines.

For a full list of centres delivering both remotely and face-to-face, use the course locator tool.

Test Centres

All Pearson VUE centres in England have now re-opened, with Internet Test Centres (ITCs) also gradually becoming operational for bookings of the Health, Safety and Environment Test. 

We are continually reviewing Government advice with our partners to re-establish testing in Scotland and Wales. The latest information and updates on test delivery can be found here. 

Grants

CITB announced in March that it would pay grants for current second and third year apprentices in advance. Since then over £3.6m has been paid to 1,999 employers, supporting 4,148 apprentices in total. This also includes support to Higher Level Apprenticeships, where £224k has been paid to 76 employers to support 360 apprentices.

Skills and Training Fund

To date we have allocated over £350k to successful applicants who have met the criteria of to the Skills and Training Fund for micro, small and medium-sized businesses that was launched on 1 April. In the coming months we look forward to approving more top scoring applications that deliver high quality learning and development experiences to employees or enable a company to improve their training programme so that it meets the more complex needs of a developing business.

Support documents

CITB has produced a range of checklists and forms to ensure those who are permitted and able to return to work have a clear understanding of how they can apply the CLC’s latest COVID-19 site operating procedures guidance in practice.

CITB’s COVID-19 Urgent Messages page is refreshed daily and includes updates on the full range of our work.

You can also read the range of support measures made available to UK businesses and employees by the UK Government.

Finally, I would like to wish you all a lovely weekend, stay safe.

Sarah Beale
Chief Executive