Our funding priorities

CITB funding aims to help industry address the skills gap in construction. We invest in projects aligned to our three priorities:

• Careers
  • Promoting the construction industry as an attractive sector to work in.
• Training and development
  • Ensuring the training is there when employers need it, and that they are aware of what training is available using all current and emerging methods.
• Innovation
  • Offering creative and innovative responses to industry’s future challenges. 

How we share it out

Each year we aim to invest £20 million of the industry levy we receive into three funds:

• Skills and training fund
  
  • This fund supports small employers to deliver skills and training to their workforce. In the fund year from April 2018, up to £5 million is available in this fund.
• Collaborative innovation and training fund
  
  • This fund responds to skills problems identified and presented by industry. In the fund year from April 2018, up to £4 million is available in this fund.
• CITB commissioned projects fund
  
  • This fund invests in solving skills problems where CITB has identified a need using available evidence. In the fund year from April 2018, up to £11 million is available in this fund.

To make sure our funding really benefits industry and addresses our priorities, we allocate funding based on a project's impact and outcomes, rather than for the delivery of an activity.

Managing the funds

To make sure CITB funds help build the right skills to meet industry needs, we will:

• Review our funding programme regularly so we can respond to customer feedback, industry needs and changes to the amount of funding available.

• Consider how projects with similar aims and objectives might join together to enable economies of scale and to better distribute the benefits across the industry.

View the projects we’ve already invested in

As there is a limit to the funding available, the demand for funding could exceed the total amount of funds available.

If this happens, we will: 

• Prioritise the highest scoring applications.
• Defer bids that have scored the required grade, but are not ranked among the highest scoring applications.
• Allocate a reduced amount of funding to projects.
• Reallocate funds across the investment portfolio.

Evaluating projects

In order to improve performance, we need to monitor and evaluate every project right from the beginning. 

Evaluation involves collecting and using data to answer your own questions about your work and to manage and learn from what you do. Our approach to evaluation focuses on outcomes, by which we mean the overall and measurable difference a project hopes to make. We ask: 

• How have the people who used your product or service benefited from it?
• What you plan to do after your funding finishes?
• Whether your project has had a positive effect in your sector?

Evaluating each project will help CITB to make decisions about future funding. 

Depending on what you tell us, a member of CITB’s evaluation team may contact you to look at developing additional materials such as case studies.

See some case studies of how CITB funding has helped a business like yours.