Covid-19: CITB chief exec update – 28 May 2020

Good afternoon,

I hope you’re having a good week. Today’s email includes news of a Site Safety Plus milestone; a reminder of the support documents available to you; and a refresh on CITB’s support measures for industry.

Support Documents

Having seen more construction sites re-starting, I’d like to remind you of the range of COVID-19 site safety checklists and forms that we produced to support the CLC site operating procedures. These include a site compliance checklist, risk assessment template,   Toolbox Talk and weekly site checklist, all these and an additional ninety eight interactive checklists and forms can be found here. To date, the information on this page has been accessed many times and we are also working hard to ensure you can always find the latest information and updates on our Urgent Messages page, which has received over 30,000 views this month.

Update on recent Support Measures

Site Safety Plus

We’re pleased to have been able to provide support to training providers and employers and it’s encouraging to know that a fantastic milestone has been reached with the delivery of remote learning through Site Safety Plus. More than 1,000 delegates who have been accredited using remote delivery, have now successfully completed their Site Safety Plus course. There has also been a further increase in Site Safety Plus training centres delivering remote learning since our last update – 78 in total. For a full list of the centres delivering remotely use the course locator tool.

Test Centres

We are continuing to work on the re-establishment of the Health, Safety and Environment testing operations in England. The majority of Pearson VUE centres have now re-opened and we currently have 65 Internet Test Centre’s operational. We are continually reviewing the 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 £3.4m has been paid to 1,999 employers, supporting 3,749 apprentices. Having extended the Advanced Grant support to Higher Level Apprenticeships, over £218k has been paid to 75 employers to support 347 apprentices since then.

Skills and Training Fund

The new Skills and Training Fund for micro, small and medium sized businesses was launched on April 1. To date we have received 392 applications. To apply for funding, click here.

Buildathon

The Minecraft competitions provide a great opportunity during these times for the younger generation to have some fun, while learning more about construction skills. The winner of the second Buildathon round in England and Scotland has now been announced. Congratulations to Oscar Stockdale.  It was evident that a huge amount of time and hard work went into his entry, and his design really impressed the judges. For more information and to register your interest, click here.

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