What support will I get?

Once you have been placed with an employer and have a place booked with a college or training provider, you will take our online initial assessment to determine your individual needs.

Learning difficulties

If you have learning difficulties, and have a current Statement of Special Educational Needs or Additional Learning Needs, we can provide support during the exercise.

You will have to provide CITB with the relevant documentary evidence in order to receive the support you require.

Key Skills/Essential Skills

Functional Skills, Key skills or Essential skills are an important part of the apprenticeship. If you want to improve your reading, writing or maths, there will be plenty of help available. CITB will support you fully at every stage of your learning journey.

CITB is committed to promoting equal opportunities for everyone. That is regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion and beliefs, gender, sexual orientation or socio-economic background.

We live in a diverse society that is multicultural and multilingual, where everyone is different and has something different to bring to society and the workplace.

Construction is an industry which requires a variety of different skills and abilities. It is important that people from different backgrounds, life experiences and abilities are employed to enable us to achieve the high levels of skills needed to be world leaders.

CITB wants to attract and support the best qualified people to work in the construction industry. Your information will only be used to make things better for you and others. If we don't know who is applying for an apprenticeship we can't do everything we would like to support you, whether you are white/black, older/young, married/single, straight/gay, man/woman. We want to make sure we're being fair and that people from all backgrounds are getting the opportunity to do an apprenticeship in construction. Any information you provide is protected by law which makes sure we protect this information and deal with it responsibly. This information will not be used in any recruitment or selection decision and it will not be passed on to any employers without your permission.

So that your training environment is one where you can give your best and realise your full potential, CITB will make sure that you are treated fairly, with dignity and respect throughout your apprenticeship.

CITB takes its responsibilities to apprentices very seriously and is committed to ensuring their safety at all times.

All employers of CITB Apprentices must comply with the requirements of current health and safety legislation and codes of practice.

Before you begin your apprenticeship, your Apprenticeship Officer will conduct an extensive pre-placement vetting visit with your employer. This is to make sure that you are being placed with a company that will take your training and health and safety seriously.

If the company does not match up to our standards then you will not be allowed to proceed onto your Apprenticeship with your employer.

The sort of things we will be looking for are:

• Employers and Public Liability Insurance
• A safety policy
• Risk assessments
• First aid procedures and accident book
• Provision of Personal Protective Equipment (free of charge).

So that we are certain that you will be safe throughout your apprenticeship, your employer will also be required to:

• Provide you with a health and safety induction
• Carry out all necessary risk assessments to ensure all steps are taken to reduce the risk of anything untoward happening to you
• Have procedures in place to report any accidents to CITB.

All of this is important and helps to ensure your safety on site.

The Learner Voice gives apprentices the chance to provide feedback on the service they receive from CITB and their college (or training provider).

Apprentices fill in confidential questionnaires at different stages of their programme to highlight any issues or problems they are facing. Apprenticeship officers also run Learner Voice meetings with their apprentices.

All complaints and recommendations given by apprentices are taken seriously and help CITB and the colleges (or training providers) to improve on the service it provides.

Sometimes, it may be necessary for you to lodge away from home when you are training at college.

Your Apprenticeship Officer will arrange this for you. To make sure you are safe, they will only book you into CITB approved lodgings near to your college (or training provider) and pay for them.

You can also claim some travel costs for journeys to and from your college (or training provider) and CITB will pay expenses over £20 a day. You will be responsible for travel costs to and from your place of work though.

All college fees are met by CITB.

As an apprentice, you need to know that you're on track to achieve your career goals.

Regular reviews provide you with the chance to look at what's been going on in your training and will help you plan ahead. Your apprenticeship officer will carry out these reviews with you, your tutor and your employer.

The reviews look at what you've achieved and record how you are getting on with your training. They also plan what you should do before your next review and identify any support you might need to help you achieve your apprenticeship.

You'll have the chance to discuss all aspects of your progress with your apprenticeship officer, tutor and employer.
Basic Skills Support and Mentoring

All apprentices have to complete a basic literacy and numeracy assessment to find out where they may need additional support to help them with their apprenticeship. If basic skills support is necessary, it may be delivered:

• Formally - your college (or training provider) can arrange for additional lessons, one to one support, readers for tests or additional time to complete tests
• Informally - your tutor can support you through lessons as and when required by your apprenticeship officer who is also available to support you.

CITB recognises that your welfare is always of paramount consideration and all apprentices have the right to equal protection from all types of harm or abuse.

We safeguard apprentices by:

• Valuing them, listening to them, and respecting them
• Adopting Safeguarding Guidelines through procedures and a Code of Conduct for staff
• Recruiting staff safely by providing Best Practice Guidance to make sure that Safeguarding is included in the recruitment and selection process
• Sharing information about concerns with agencies that need it, and involving learners and their parents/carers appropriately.

CITB makes every effort to ensure all apprentices are:

• Provided with a safe learning environment, both in the workplace and at colleges/training providers
• Involved in the continuous review and improvement of the services we provide.

Every apprentice is given support and guidance from a designated apprenticeship officer with designated child protection responsibilities.